A Novel Analysis of Urban and Rural Thermal Comfort Levels as a Futuristic Human Dwelling Strategy

The energy consumption of the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning System (HVAC) system constitutes almost 50% of the total energy in a building environment. The demand for HVAC systems for improved/better thermal performance in buildings is increasing day by day due to changes in the lifestyle of humans and climatic changes. Thermal comfort has become a vital factor for every individual living indoors for mental and physical health and productivity. Hence solution to improve the thermal performance of the indoor environment by cutting down the use of HVAC systems is needed. This paper aims to compare the thermal performances of mud houses as well as conventional brick houses in rural and urban locations. The extensive comparison study between mud houses, and brick houses in rural locations and urban locations has been carried out using thermal images, and the CBE thermal comfort tool as per ASHRAE 55 standards. The detailed analysis of Thermal Comfort indices, i.e., Predicted Mean Value and Percentage of People Dissatisfied (PMV and PPD) have been evaluated through graphical visualization. The obtained results shows a high level of thermal comfort in the case of rural houses as compared to urban houses. PPD for urban areas was 29% and it was quite high. The measured average indoor temperature difference between rural and urban houses was found to be 7.2 °C. Hence various passive strategies and recommendations have been provided to have better indoor thermal comfort in urban areas.