ABSTRACT

The main objective of the study was to analyze the thermal comfort of a two storey building in Umudike, Abia state. CEDAT lodge was selected as the case study. Design Builder Energy Plus simulation program was used to model and perform simulations. Simulations for thermal comfort were done on the baseline model with a WWR of 30 % to attain the baseline model comfort data based on Simple ASHRAE 55-2004 throughout the year. Simulations for different natural ventilation improvement strategies were then done through parametric analysis. The strategies simulated for improving occupancy thermal comfort were lighting control, mechanical ventilation without cooling (fans), mechanical ventilation with cooling and variation ofwindow to wall ratio from 0% to 100% to establish its effect on the thermal comfort ofthe building occupants .Results for predicted thermal comfort sensation of occupants revealed that baseline thermal comfort sensation was between hot and slightly warm with 35.15% discomfort hours against 64.85% comfort throughout the year. Lighting control thermal comfort sensation improved to between hot and neutral with 0.55% improvement in baseline occupancy thermal comfort hours. Mechanical ventilation without cooling registered a negligible improvement in occupancy thermal comfort while on application ofscheduled cooling thermal comfort improved between slightly warm and slightly cool with a 12% improvement in comfort hours. Variation of WWR revealed that thermal comfort generally increased negligible with increase in WWR.It can be concluded that mechanical ventilation with cooling combined with lighting control can be great strategies and opportunity for improving the case study thermal comfort.