Low Energy Ground Cooling System for Buildings in Hot and Humid Malaysia
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Low Energy Ground Cooling System for Buildings in Hot and Humid Malaysia by Aliyah Nur Zafirah Sanusi B.Sc., B.Arch., M.Phil. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy De Montfort University June 2012 This thesis is sponsored by International Islamic University Malaysia and De Montfort University ABSTRACT This thesis presents an investigation into the viability of Low Energy Earth Pipe Cooling Technology in providing thermal comfort in Malaysia. The demand for air- conditioning in buildings in Malaysia affects the country escalating energy consumption. Therefore, this investigation was intended to seek for a passive cooling alternative to air-conditioning. By reducing the air-conditioning demand, there would be a higher chance of Malaysia government to achieve their aim in reducing CO2 emissions to 40 per cent by the year 2020, compared to 2005 levels. The passive technology, where the ground was used as a heat sink to produce cooler air, has not been investigated systematically in hot and humid countries. In this work, air and soil temperatures were measured on a test site in Kuala Lumpur. At 1m underground, the result is most significant, where the soil temperature are 6oC and 9oC lower than the maximum ambient temperature during wet and dry season, respectively. Polyethylene pipes were buried around 0.5m, 1.0m and 1.5m underground and temperature drop between inlet and outlet were compared. A significant temperature drop was found in these pipes: up to 6.4oC and 6.9oC depending on the season of the year. The results have shown the potential of Earth Pipe in providing low energy cooling in Malaysia. A parametric study on the same experiment was carried out using Energy Plus programme. Energy Plus data agreed with the field work data and therefore, this confirms Energy Plus is reliable to investigate Earth Pipe Cooling in Malaysia. Furthermore, thermal comfort of air at the Earth Pipe outlet was analyzed and the result has shown that the outlet air is within the envelope of thermal comfort conditions for hot/humid countries. i For my beloved husband Shazlan, children, Aiman and Sarah and my dearest parents, Sanusi and Nila. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my first supervisor, Professor Li Shao, for his inspiring guidance, encouragement, endless and timeless support and motivating advice in making this thesis a reality. I am also grateful to my second supervisor, Professor Vic Hanby for his valuable ideas, advice and support. I wish to thank the International Islamic University Malaysia for their faith in my success by awarding me the scholarship that enables me to do this research. I am also thankful for the International Islamic University Malaysia for granting me funds that support the research field investigation and presentation of findings at a conference. My sincere gratitude to Professor Mansor Ibrahim, who were the Dean of Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) for having faith in me and for endless support in all complications experienced throughout the journey in achieving a PhD degree. A sincere thanks also to Professor Khairuddin Abdul Rashid, the current Dean of KAED for supporting me towards completion of my Thesis. Sincere thanks to Dato’ Ir Shaffei Mohamad from Development Division in IIUM for permitting me to use a generous area of land within the IIUM campus, as a test site for the thesis field investigation. Sincere thanks also to Professor Najib Ibrahim from IIUM for his valuable advice and for his help in securing the field investigation site. I also wish to express my thanks to Dr. Neil Brown from IESD, De Montfort University for lending me the equipments for use in my field investigation. I wish to extend my gratefulness towards Professor Waqar Asrar and the late Dr. Wahyudi Martono from Kulliyyah of Engineering, IIUM for loaning some of the equipments and a computer for my field investigation. I am very thankful to my research assistant, Mr Nik Azmin Nik Ahmad, for his full dedication in assisting me throughout my field investigation. Many thanks also to Mr iii Azizuddin Ibrahim from the Engineering Department for his assistance in a fraction of the field investigation. My sincere gratitude to Dr Sherif Ezzeldin, a PhD graduate from De Montfort University for his valuable guidance in using simulation software called Energy Plus. Sincerely thank you to Dr. Pierre Hollmuller for providing valuable research finding and simulation tool named Buried Pipe, which has help me in my computer simulation software. With whole heartedly, I am truly thankful to my husband, Fadhli Shazlan Abdul Rahman for being very supportive and understanding with much encouragement throughout my research and completion of my thesis. Truly thankful also to my parents and parents-in- laws, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, Puan Sri Nila Inangda, Dr Abdul Rahman and Dr Biduwiyah for their loving support and encouragement until the completion of the thesis. Apart from the above, I am thankful to have such supportive siblings in helping out with various tasks throughout the research. Thank you Akhari Sanusi, Azfar Sanusi, Amanda Sanusi, Athirah Sanusi and Faizal Mohamad for helping in locating the equipment and despatching the equipment when I was out of reach. Thank you Syahrel Abdul Rahman for the valuable Engineering knowledge input which was beyond my knowledge as an Architect graduate. Thank you to Syazwina Abdul Rahman for providing transport to the field investigation site. Thank you to other family members also for their loving support and encouragement. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Dedication ii Acknowledgement iii Table of Contents v List of Figures ix List of Tables xx Published Papers xxiv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Questions 6 1.2 Research Objectives 6 1.3 Research Limitations 7 1.4 Thesis Structure 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: MALAYSIA BACKGROUND 11 2.1 Malaysia Background Study 11 2.1.1 Climate 12 2.1.2 Malay Vernacular Architecture 37 2.1.3 Cooling Methods Implemented in Malaysia 42 2.2 Thermal Comfort 52 2.2.1 The Processes of Thermal Interaction between 53 Man and the Environment 2.2.2 Factors of Thermal Comfort 57 2.2.3 Adaptive Thermal Comfort 61 2.2.4 Thermal Comfort in Warm and Humid Tropical 63 Countries 2.2.5 Conclusion 68 v CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW: PASSIVE GROUND 69 COOLING 3.1 Heat Flow within the Earth 69 3.2 Heat Storage Capacity of the Earth Subsurface 73 3.3 Passive Ground Cooling 75 3.4 Passive Low Energy Earth Pipe Cooling 77 3.4.1 Factors that affect Earth Pipe Cooling 77 performance 3.4.2 Application of Earth Pipe Cooling 83 3.4.3 Limitations 91 3.5 Common Research Methods for Earth Pipe Cooling 92 Investigation 3.5.1 Field Experiment 92 3.5.2 Computer Modelling 93 3.5.3 Energy Calculation 94 3.6 Hybrid Design for Enhancement of Earth Pipe Cooling 96 System 3.7 Conclusion 99 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY 100 4.1 Field Work Site 103 4.2 Field Work 1: Soil Temperature Measurement in 105 Malaysia 4.2.1 Soil temperature measurement in the wet season 105 4.2.2 Soil temperature measurement in hot and dry 109 season 4.2.3 Soil temperature measurement in one year 115 4.3 Field Work 2: Earth Pipe Cooling Experiment in Malaysia 119 4.3.1 Selecting fan blower 126 4.3.2 Earth Pipe Cooling experiment in the wet season 131 4.3.3 Earth Pipe Cooling experiment in the hot and dry 135 season vi 4.3.4 Year-long Earth Pipe Cooling experiment 138 CHAPTER 5: CURRENT FINDINGS: FIELD WORK 141 5.1 Malaysia Soil Temperature 141 5.2 Earth Pipe Cooling Investigation in Malaysia 154 5.2.1 Investigation in the Wet Season 154 5.2.2 Investigation in the Dry Season 160 5.2.3 One year investigation of 1.0m depth buried pipe 167 5.2.4 Summary of Dry Bulb Temperature and Relative 188 Humidity 5.2.5 Further field investigation on buried pipe inlet 190 5.2.6 Field Investigation using PVC buried pipe 193 CHAPTER 6: COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION 199 6.1 Comparing data from Energy Plus, Buried Pipe and Field 199 experiments 6.2 Simulation Set Up in Energy Plus 201 6.3 Validation of Energy Plus using monthly experimental 206 data 6.4 Parametric Studies – Extended Investigation of Earth Pipe 212 Cooling in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with Energy Plus Software. CHAPTER 7: THERMAL COMFORT AND ENERGY DISCUSSION 218 7.1 Thermal Comfort Performance 218 7.1.1 Malaysia Thermal Comfort Temperature Range in 218 Naturally Ventilated Building 7.1.2 Auliciems Thermal Comfort Range 219 7.1.3 Khedari Thermal Comfort Chart 221 7.2 Energy Efficiency of Earth Pipe Cooling in Malaysia 225 vii CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION 230 8.2Key Findings and Conclusions 230 8.2.1 Soil temperature investigation 230 8.2.2 Earth Pipe Cooling investigation 231 8.2.3 Validation of Enegry Plus simulation tool 232 8.2.4 Thermal Comfort analysis 233 8.3 Potential Future Research 235 Appendix 237 Reference 240 viii LIST OF FIGURES Chapter 1: Figure 1.1: Trend of electricity consumption in three different sectors; residential, industrial and transportation from year 1980 to 2001. (Source: Department of Electricity and Gas Supply Malaysia in Chan, 2004). ........................................................................ 1 Figure 1.2: Trend of net export/import of energy from year 2000 and prediction up to year 2035 (Source: Chan, 2004)........................................................................................ 2 Figure 1.3: Breakdown chart of the energy load in an office building in Malaysia (Source: Chan, 2004). ....................................................................................................... 3 Figure 1.4: Breakdown chart of the energy load in a typical terraced house in Malaysia (Source: Chan, 2004).