ESTRATÉGIAS PARA CONFORTO TÉRMICO COM CAPTAÇÃO SOLAR EM CASA-ENVOLTÓRIA NO (SUB)TRÓPICO ÚMIDO

Abstract

With regard to thermal comfort with low consumption of electricity for buildings in humid tropical or subtropical regions, which is made difficult when there is small thermal variation in the day-night cycle, an envelope-house system is presented, with tunable elements, that uses temperature and pressure differentials directed north-south and below-above the living space: solar capture by glass /solar curtain/ glass façade and by solarium with retractile cover; ventilation and cooling with air admission from the native forest, south direction and with rock bed shaped as trenches and ducts (natural or forced convection); under-ceiling guide and clerestory. In particular, thermal exchange can be enhanced in part of the under-ceiling by a metallic surface, textured and coated for higher emissivity / absorptivity. In the same sense, a conservative estimation indicates that one meter of a trench filled with irregular and rough rocks, with average diameter of 0.15m, might present a thermal exchange surface equivalent to twenty meters of a duct with smooth walls, and at much lower costs. As practical results, projected elements of the system were constructed and initial test conducted, still at individual level, in the present development stage of the envelope house with solar caption. Its global operation scheme is discussed, in open system for summer cooling, as well as in closed system for winter heating.