The Impact of Equatorial Proximity on Thermal Performance in Residential Apartment Spaces

Many recent studies have looked at environmental factors and how they influence the decisions that architects make when designing a building. One such study [6] looked at the effect of different climate data derived from different geographic locations on a building's thermal performance. examined how different building envelope features at the three levels (external walls, partitions, and roofs) affect the energy efficiency and thermal performance of four distinct cities located in disparate geographic locations with respect to temperature, humidity, longitude and latitude, and air speed. The study's conclusion corroborated the findings of multiple researchers who showed how variations in a city's climate data affect the thermal behavior of the building envelope, which in turn affects interior building temperatures and occupant comfort [7]. The study's findings indicated a rise in the need for cooling and a decrease in the use of energy for heating. The study looked at how climate change would affect an urban building unit in Greece's energy requirements for heating and cooling. which focused on selecting the optimal thermal shape for four building models for five climate-variable Chinese cities, hoping that the results would provide designers with guidelines and ideas for better design. programs for modeling, simulating, and figuring out how much heat each shape absorbs annually. A study [8] found that the pyramid has the highest annual heat load and that the dome operates at its best thermal efficiency when the wwr ratio is 30% or less. It was reported that the study of a building design model in five European Union countries was published in a roughly north to south pattern and that the decline in heating demand in northern and central Europe is greater than the rise in cooling demand [9]. The aforementioned studies examined the overall thermal behavior of buildings in relation to their geographic locations; however, they did not address the effects of building designs in relation to their proximity to the equator, an imaginary line that divides the globe into equal parts north and south and represents the zero-degree latitude line. Measuring about 24,901 miles in length, only 21.3% of it is on land and the remainder is in water. The equator runs through several countries, mostly in Africa and South America, and only thirteen of those have cities on or near the equator: Sao Tome and Principe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Somalia, the Maldives, and Uganda. These include Ecuador, Kiribati, Kenya, Columbia, Brazil, and Indonesia. Its location puts it in close proximity to other cities that are also near the equator, such as Singapore, Nairobi, Guayaquil, Fortaleza, Kuala Lumpur, Manaus, Kampala, Kigali, Pekanbaru, Balikpapan, Libreville, Kuching, Iquitos, and Jayapura Bogota [10]. Residential buildings and apartments' thermal performance away from the equator, as well as how that translates into each of the spaces that comprise an apartment, were not covered in the studies. How can space engineering, in addition, reduce or even eliminate heat loads in tropical cities in comparison to cities situated far from the equator.

(1) Estimating the percentages of thermal loads and the overall extent to which residential apartment spaces' various locations in respect to the equator influence their thermal behavior for every month of the year.

(2) Calculating the exact effect of space behavior on climate data, encompassing the quantity of transitional periods, the loads in each, and the magnitude of the thermal load variation in each.

The study calculates the monthly heat load for the entire year, identifies transitional periods and the degree of thermal variation in each transitional zone for each space, and measures the thermal behavior of the residential apartment spaces that are the subject of the research using the program ECOTECT2011, which is specifically designed to measure the thermal behavior of buildings and contains tools. It uses its own analytics and displays the results in the form of EXCEL tables for the values of refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat loads (during the day, month, or year). Because it is located between latitudes (29 and 37) and represents the researcher's local environment, the Iraqi city of Mosul was selected as an example. It symbolizes the researcher's local surroundings and is situated between latitudes (1-6) degrees. Situated north of the equator, or any city with an equivalent distance from the equator; the comparison of the two previous cases and the ratio of the differences between the cases; and the potential variations in the thermal behavior of residential apartments, especially during the transitional period, which can be represented by the annual decrease and increase in the number of days that residential apartments experience thermal comfort.

Presuming that a residential apartment is the sample selected for the study, the measurement procedure will concentrate on ascertaining the precise influence of the variation in climate data brought about by the apartment's distance from the equator on the behavior of the spaces in the apartment and in two geographically different cities, one near and the other far from the equator. Kuala Lumpur, a tropical country between 100° and 103° E in the eastern hemisphere and between 1° and 6° N in the northern latitude, is characterized by a moderate climate throughout the year, whereas the city of Mosul was known for its extreme summer and winter temperatures [11]. This means that there is a chance that the results will differ clearly and accurately depending on the climate data for the two cities. Its proximity to the equator and the surrounding bodies of water contribute to its extremely unstable climate [12]. It is characterized by temperatures that are typically lower than those found elsewhere [13]. Mosul is located between longitude and latitude (36.09°). There, one experiences hot, dry summers and cold, snowless winters [14]. The weather is extremely hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter [15]. For the outer cover of the selected apartment, a wall of blocks measuring 15cm in thickness (blcok15cm) and an external cement finish measuring 10 mm (cement plaster 10 mm) were determined as a fixed type. Internal plasterboard finishing measured 20 mm (plaster board 20 mm), as indicated in Table 2, and adopted as a temperature (22-28) as a thermal comfort limit in order to precisely determine the thermal behavior of the apartment spaces. The traditional local building materials that were utilized were selected because they are the most prevalent in the Mosul neighbourhood [16]. can provide basic cues to the designer to help achieve more efficient thermal performance of a residential apartment and lessen the difference in the required air conditioning load between its spaces [17].

Table 2. Wall layers for the external walls and their characteristics/ Prepare the researcher

Due to the difficulty of drawing precise comparisons between the two cities, we divide the work into two levels in order to shed light on the differences in thermal performance between the virtual apartment spaces specified in the research and the cities that are close to the equator, such as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and those that are far from it, such as Mosul in Iraq.

It includes the results of figuring out the monthly thermal loads for the two cities, four locations, and the entire year. daily thermal loads for each transitional period as well as the number of transitional periods that were measured, which show how the thermal loads varied during each transitional period as follows:

(1) Following a year-long calculation, the monthly thermal loads for each of the research's designated spaces are as follows:

Figures 10, 11, and 12 show the number of yearly transitional periods that occur between two locations that are close to and far from the equator, specifically the cities of Mosul and Kuala Lumpur.

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Figure 10. Monthly heat loads for the first space throughout the year in the Ecotect2011 Program:

A. Monthly heat loads in the city of Mosul-Iraq.

B. Monthly thermal loads in the city of Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia

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Figure 11. Monthly thermal loads for the second and third spaces throughout the year in the Ecotect 2011 program:

A. Monthly heat loads in the city of Mosul-Iraq.

B. Monthly thermal loads in the city of Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia

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Figure 12. Monthly heat loads for the fourth space throughout the year in the Ecotect 2011 program:

A. Monthly heat loads in the city of Mosul-Iraq.

B. Monthly thermal loads in the city of Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia

The monthly and annual thermal loads for each of the two cities are shown in the aforementioned figures, and it is evident how different they are from one another. For instance, even though both cities share the same space and have the same geometry and shape, Mosul, in Iraq, which has the most extreme climate and is located farthest from the equator, requires higher loads than Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia. The other spaces mentioned in the research have the same problem, needing higher loads than the others. However, the results above indicate that, as there are only two transitional zones in Mosul, the thermal loads are either heating or cooling loads, with the exception of the months during the transitional period. In Kuala Lumpur, the city has a variety of heating and cooling loads that are needed for the same month. These loads are distributed throughout the year on either side of thermal comfort zones. Figures 10-12 show that it has eight transitional zones. These transitional zones highlight how important it is to improve the shape factor and proportions of each space to improve its thermal performance. In semi-temperate climates and climate data, such as that of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, any modification to the shape factor ratio can help each of the understudied spaces experience more thermal rest days and less thermal load requirements.

(2) As illustrated in Figures 13 and 14 and for the four rooms that comprise the residential apartment selected for the study, the results of the daily thermal load calculations for the first transitional period are as follows:

For instance, if we look at the procedure of measuring daily thermal loads at the detailed level for a portion of the year and for the four spaces during the transitional period between the two cities, the findings indicate as follows:

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Figure 13. Daily heat loads (HVAC) for the city of Mosul in the first transitional period

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Figure 14. Daily heat loads (HVAC) for Kuala Lumpur city in the first transition period

According to the research, the four apartment spaces on both sides of the thermal comfort zone in Figure 13 and the city of Mosul, which is the furthest from the equator, experienced high extremes in daily thermal loads during the transitional period. However, the results show that in the nearby city of Kuala Lumpur, there are variations in thermal loads, albeit with slightly lower load values. Compared to the city of Mosul, it is easier and more likely to improve the thermal performance based on the geometry of the spaces there because they are significantly away from the equator and do not experience extreme loads, as evidenced by the thermal performance of the spaces as shown in Figure 14. This is due to Kuala Lumpur's daily thermal loads during transitional periods being less extreme than those of Mosul. By altering or improving the proportions of the residential apartment spaces, the eight can be reduced or eliminated, in contrast to the extreme thermal loads in Mosul on both sides of the thermal comfort zones for the two transitional periods, which are difficult to eliminate or reduce.

(a) The results of the number of days of thermal rest, where (HVAC) for all spaces of the apartment is zero (in each city, as shown in Table 6), and as follows:

Table 6. The number of thermal comfort days

It is evident from the above results that Mosul, which is far from the equator, has 22 thermal rest days, which are divided between the two regions of the summer and winter solstices. Nine days occur in May during the period of May 22-30, and three days occur in September during the same period (September 13-25). Kuala Lumpur, on the other hand, is close to the equator, with 30 days of thermal rest distributed throughout the year that are not isolated in areas without the others. This indicates that a more robust application of the coefficient of form and the geometry of spaces could be advantageous for every region. A change in the proportions of the spaces on its sides can improve thermal comfort and increase the number of thermal rest days because it has a greater variety of comfort areas than the rest areas in Iraq, which consisted of only two main areas with a larger size to influence.

(b) As indicated in Table 7, the following are the results of the highest value for environmental control systems, also referred to as HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), which are engineering systems that aid in regulating and maintaining the conditions of the built indoor environment:

Table 7. The highest HVAC value for each city

Table 7's results indicate that the value of HVAC (environmental control systems, or engineering systems that aid in controlling internal environmental conditions) is 2, 647, 836 in Mosul and -58,790 in Kuala Lumpur. This disparity highlights the significant differences in climate data between the two cities. they result from the disparity in location with respect to the equator.

(c) The results of the number of critical days, as the HVAC value does not exceed (3000wh) in each of the two cities, as shown in Table 8 as follows:

Table 8. The critical days

Table 8's results indicate that there are 17 critical days in Mosul where the HVAC value is less than 3000wh. Kuala Lumpur has 22 critical days, which corroborates all of the earlier findings about the advantages of enhancing space engineering as a means of mitigating environmental damage. Temperature difference with respect to Mosul, the city furthest from the equator.