Passive solar energy-efficient building design in Kenya

Abstract

This work aims at providing thermal comfort specifications for buildings Kenya without the use of expensive active conditioning devices. It utilizes a computer proqram , ARCHIPAK, together with the climatic data for nine stations representing Kenya fairly well climatically by virtue of their geographical locations.An initial climate analysis on the climatic data has been done to arrive at generalized advice for the climatic design of houses, based on the 'Mahoney Tables' method. Comparison of the computer -aided analytical data (CAAD) on the basis of the Mahoney tables shows that this analysis yields excellent comfort zones for the warmer climates in the country. However, with minor adjustment of the Mahoney's tables indicators, it was possible to predict design guidelines for the entire country fairly well