Indoor Thermal Comfort Assessment of Residential Building Stock in Quetta, Pakistan

Since last several years Pakistan is facing energy crisis which leads to power-cuts across the country resulting serious disturbance in everyday life. However, residential buildings use more than half of the energy and its demand and usage is continuously increasing. Quetta is the 10th largest city of Pakistan and its urban population is increasing at a high rate. The climate of Quetta is mild to extreme cold in winter and hot in summer which need more heating and cooling for optimal thermal comfort in houses. Energy usage of a household do not only depend on the performance of the building, heating, and cooling systems but also on the life style of the residents. The chosen typology is reinforced cement concrete houses, which is very common and widespread across the country. There is no policy or measures taken at the authority level and most of the houses are not designed by professionals, therefore, the existing houses do not provide optimal indoor thermal comfort. The study consists the monitoring of indoor climate, interviews, and questionnaire. The thermal comfort level was quantified based on the monitored data, and the interviews and questionnaire helped to understand the comfort perception, energy consumption behaviour and life style of the residents. The results show that residential buildings do not provide optimal thermal comfort and residents use active systems to improve indoor thermal comfort which leads to increase in energy usage.