Dataset for "Improving Thermal Comfort in Refugee Shelters in Desert Environments"

Data collection method:

The work was completed using two hypotheses: 1. It is possible to take an existing shelter design, that is already deployed at scale and has been shown via field surveys to provide unsatisfactory thermal comfort, and complete a parametric analysis using field testing of prototypes to generate an affordable derivative of the same appearance that provides improved internal thermal conditions as measured against acceptable thermal comfort bands. 2. That similar results can be achieved using thermal modelling without any field testing even though many of the modelling inputs are unlikely to be accurately known. To assess our hypotheses, the thermal conditions within eleven variants of identical form but representing different possible improvement strategies were compared to a base design. The success of the prototypes was assessed by comparing the maximum daytime temperature and number of degree hours over comfort levels compared to the control shelter. The success of computational modelling was to be assessed by comparing predicted performance against monitored performance. Twelve unoccupied test shelters were monitored (temperature, humidity, opening of doors and windows) for ten weeks from 15/7/19 – 21/9/19. Nine shelters received passive adaptations, two received active adaptations, all adaptations were focused on improving internal summer thermal comfort. The shelters were simulated in EnergyPlus v9.0.1 Two metrics are used to evaluate the thermal performance of each shelter: air temperature and operative temperature. Overheating is typically quantified as the total number of hours the threshold has been surpassed (total hour count, OH_ch [h]). However, such a metric fails to account for the severity of overheating, since deviations of 1 K over the threshold are more benign than deviations of 6 K. For this purpose, a second metric weighs (multiplies) the duration of overheating according to the temperature deviation above the threshold (to give weighted hours of overheating, OH_wh [K·h]). Here we use the ASHRAE Standard 55 Thermal Comfort Model together with that found in Vellei. The change in internal conditions provided by the interventions are assessed for both the physical and modelled shelters using the following metrics: 1. Minimum air temperature difference between indoors and outdoors, rTp-e (°C). Negative numbers indicate the extent to which air temperature in the shelter is cooler than the external air temperature. 2. Maximum indoor air temperature difference between shelter variant and control shelter, rTp-c (°C). Negative numbers indicate the extent to which the shelter is cooler than the control shelter. 3. Minimum indoor air temperature, T_min (°C) 4. Mean indoor air temperature, T_avg (°C) 5. Maximum indoor air temperature, T_max (°C) 6. T_comf_max_ashrae: ASHRAE upper limit for indoor operative temperature (80% acceptability) (°C) 7. T_comf_max_vellei: Vellei’s model upper limit for indoor operative temperature (80% acceptability) (°C) 8. Total overheating hours compared with the adaptive comfort temperature, OH_ch (h). The metric is provided for the two thresholds considered, ASHRAE’s and Vellei’s. 9. Total overheating Kelvin hours compared with the adaptive comfort upper temperature, OH_wh (K·h). The metric is provided for the two thresholds considered, ASHRAE’s and Vellei’s.