Desempenho térmico de habitações de interesse social: estudo no semiárido nordestino

Abstract

The quality of a built environment depends of many factors related with its space and functionality, as well its comfort (acoustic, thermal, among other). In face of the climatic of semiarid region at northeast of Brazil, characterized by highs temperatures and low humidity, the thermal comfort becomes crucial. This is reinforced by the low purchasing power of families from this region, which makes the use of mechanical refrigeration unfeasible. Thus, this paper is aimed to analyzes the thermal performance of social housing projects at the semiarid region of northeast of Brazil. For that, a building of a social housing project located at city of Crateús, east of state of Ceará, was modeled and analyzed according to simplified and computer simulation methods of thermal performance prescribed by Brazilians standards NBR 15575-1 and NBR 15220-3. It was evidenced that the building does not attend the performance criteria for the minimum level, which led to the proposition of low-cost alternatives to the building design that would improve its thermal performance. The main strategies of thermal dissipation suggested by the Brazilian standard, as increasing the ventilation and shading, were insufficient to improve the thermal performance to minimum level. More substantial changes in the building design, as types and wall cladding thickness, were suggested and its costs were estimated. The low-cost improvements proposed can imply in cost reduction of building operations, through the reduction of mechanical refrigeration, as well as serves as reference to the local community to design or modify its buildings aiming a better life quality.