AN INNOVATIVE COOLING ROOF REDUCING THE ENERGY DEMAND FOR A NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN TROPICAL CLIMATE

In tropical climates, high temperatures and high levels of humidity, coupled with inadequate design of buildings, lead to an increase in thermal loads. The roof is the element of the building that receives the greatest amount of solar radiation throughout the year. As a result, the roof receives excessive thermal gain, which is then transmitted to the rest of the building and leads to an increase in final energy demands. Much of this can be solved with passive design strategies. With respect to the main problem of the building roof, natural ventilation can provide improvements in reducing temperatures in this area and the structure below. First, through correct orientation, a reduction of the building’s annual energy consumption by 24.32% was achieved. Secondly, by applying different configurations of the roof a reduction of 78.09% in roof cooling loads was obtained. This was brought about through a combination of optimization of the roof design for natural ventilation and the application of reflective materials with a U value of 0.13 W / mK. From the second scenario it was reduced by 14.74% with the applied strategy.