Thermal Performance of Lightweight Solar Housing for Peri-urban Villages

摘要

This study concerns an investigation into the thermal performance of prefabricated lightweight houses for peri-urban villages in the Perth Metropolitan region of Western Australia. Several styles of residence were selected for comparison taken from three constructed “lifestyle villages”. National Lifestyle Villages Pty Ltd (NLV) is committed to quadruple bottom-line sustainability and the aim was, therefore, to provide indicators of how old and new dwellings compared under the same external conditions. The buildings themselves are prefabricated and brought to site in two halves, framed in steel clad with fibrecement boarding, roofed in zincalume sheeting, and timber floored with applied fibre-cement sheeting. Although designed using passive solar design principles and other energy conservation measures they possess little thermal mass to improve the thermal performance. Research by the author indicated several feasible and low-budget innovative improvements for future designs, and how best to retrofit existing dwellings. NLV’s aim is to provide homes for over 40,000 people in 100 villages Australia-wide by the year 2025. Any improvement in residential thermal performance can be translated not only into energy savings and greenhouse gas reduction on a significant scale, but can enhance comfort levels for residents whilst reducing their energy costs.