Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109 116

www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv

Performance of di"erent passive techniques for cooling of buildings in

arid regions
N.M. Nahar , P. Sharma, M.M. Purohit
Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur 342 003, India

Received 30 May 2001; received in revised form 3 October 2001; accepted 7 January 2002

Abstract

Eight identical test structures each having dimensions 1280 610 1100 mm3 have been fabricated. All the four sides of the test
structures were made by using mild steel angle and galvanised steel sheet. The reinforced cement concrete roof was casted over these.
The di"erent passive techniques were used over the roof for cooling the environment inside test structures viz. painting of roof with white
cement, thermal insulation over the roof, nocturnal cooling i.e. shallow pond with 100 mm water column with 40 mm thick movable
thermal insulation over the roof, evaporative cooling i.e. roof is provided with gunny bags soaked with water with the help of a storage
tank and dripper for controlling 5ow of water without any pump, broken white glazed tile pieces stuck over the roof, air void insulation
i.e. inverted earthern pots having 100 mm diameter and 125 mm height were provided over the roof, and roof covered with Sania, a local
insulating material used over the huts in the arid regions and the controlled unit without any treatment. The evaporative cooling has been
found best for conventional roof, but it requires about 50 l=m2 water per day, therefore, pieces of white glazed tiles stuck over the roof
can be used to reduce heat load from the roof and hence cooling of the environment inside buildings. ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Solar cooling; Passive techniques; Architecture; Solar energy

1. Introduction plantation for shading and large thermal storage capacity of

Ancient architecture had many passive features, which
helped, in creating comfortable thermal environment in the
buildings. The buildings were shaped and di"erent parts
of the building e.g. windows, doors, indoor spaces, etc.
were located and oriented to take the maximum advan-
tage of the climate. The role of trees, vegetation and wa-
ter around the building in determining the thermal comfort
was also well appreciated. In the Thar desert of Western
Rajasthan, India, the thick walls made of mud and stones
delayed the entry of daytime heat into the building by such
a period that it reached the interior during night when it is
least bothersome or often welcome. Ancient Iranian archi-
tecture [1] exploited the concept of building clusters for de-
creasing surface-to-volume ratio, thick walls for increasing
thermal storage and smoothening temperature 5uctuations,
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-291-740-386; fax: +91-291-
740-706.
E-mail address: nmnahar@cazri.raj.nic.in (N.M. Nahar).
the ground by building under ground. Iranian also used the
concept of wind towers, which along with the cooling of
the air by earth and water evaporation kept the buildings
comfortable in summer. But in the design of modern build-
ings, these proven passive concepts have been ignored and
mechanical systems are being used for heating and cooling
of the buildings. However, with the advent of energy cri-
sis there has been a renewed interest in passive concepts of
heating=cooling of the buildings. Passive cooling can be de-
Dned as the removal of heat from the environment of build-
ing by utilising the natural processes of rejecting heat to the
ambient atmosphere by convection, evaporation, and radia-
tion or to the adjacent earth by conduction and convection.
Indoor temperatures inside buildings and metallic sheds
are much above comfort conditioning [2], in arid areas.
These are so cold during winter and so hot during summer
that it is diEcult for animals and human beings to live inside.
Long-term averages of di"erent meteorological parameters
at Jodhpur [3] are shown in Table 1. From Table 1 it is clear
that during summer i.e. from April to September ambient

0360-1323/03/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 6 0 - 1 3 2 3 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 2 9 - X
 110
Table 1

N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116

Long-term average meteorological parameters at Jodhpur

Month Air temperature ( C) Sol rad. Sun Relative Vapour Rain fall Wind Dust
(MJ=m2 shine humidity pressure speed storm
Daily Daily Dry bulb Wet bulb day1 ) (h) (%) (mbar) (km h1 ) (no. of days)
max min
0830 1730 0830 1730 830 1730 830 1730 Monthly No. of
AM PM AM PM AM PM AM PM (mm) rainy
days

Jan 24.6 9.5 12.1 23.1 7.9 13.7 16.6 9.1 50 27 7.0 7.1 7.3 0.5 8.9 0
Feb 27.9 12.0 14.7 26.9 9.3 14.8 19.6 9.1 44 20 7.3 7.3 5.1 0.4 8.8 0.1
March 33.3 17.1 20.5 32.6 12.8 17.6 23.0 9.0 35 17 8.5 7.8 1.9 0.3 9.8 0.3
April 38.3 22.4 26.9 37.5 16.8 20.2 25.5 9.5 31 15 10.8 8.8 2.2 0.3 10.2 1.0
May 41.6 27.3 30.6 40.6 21.6 22.4 26.6 9.8 43 16 18.5 12.6 6.4 0.8 15.0 1.8
June 40.1 28.5 30.7 38.8 24.5 24.9 24.9 9.2 60 30 25.9 20.4 30.9 2.1 18.5 2
July 35.7 26.8 28.8 33.9 25.1 26.0 21.1 6.9 75 54 29.0 26.7 121.8 6.4 16.6 1.1
Aug 33.2 25.2 27.2 31.6 24.4 25.5 19.5 6.8 81 61 28.6 27.4 145.5 6.8 12.9 0
Sept 34.7 24.1 26.9 33.0 23.1 24.1 21.5 9.4 74 48 25.5 22.9 47.4 2.7 10.6 0
Oct 35.7 19.6 23.8 33.9 17.2 20.1 20.5 9.7 49 24 14.5 10.8 6.8 0.5 6.6 0
Nov 31.4 13.9 17.8 29.1 11.4 16.7 17.3 9.4 38 22 7.7 8.5 3.3 0.3 5.8 0
Dec 26.7 10.7 13.4 24.6 8.8 14.5 15.6 9.0 48 26 7.3 8.3 1.5 0.1 7.3

Mean 33.6 19.8 22.8 32.1 16.9 20.0 20.97 8.9 52 30 15.9 14.1 380.1 21.2 10.9 6
 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116 111

Table 2 reinforced cement concrete (RCC) has been treated with dif-
Monthly average daily global solar radiation at Jodhpur on various oriented ferent passive techniques for cooling of buildings viz. paint-
surfaces
ing of roof with white cement, thermal insulation over the
Month Global solar radiation roof, nocturnal cooling i.e. shallow pond with 100 mm wa-
(MJ=m2 =day1 ) ter column with 40 mm thick movable thermal insulation
Horizontal East West North South over the roof, evaporative cooling i.e. roof is provided with
surface gunny bags soaked with water with the help of storage tank
Jan 16.6 10.16 10.06 2.53 22.14 and dripper for controlling 5ow of water without any pump,
Feb 19.6 14.96 14.28 3.04 21.94 broken white glazed tile pieces stuck over the roof, air void
March 23.0 13.54 12.69 3.94 16.15 insulation i.e. inverted earthern pots having 100 mm diam-
April 25.5 13.80 12.97 5.67 11.31
eter and 125 mm height have been provided over the roof,
May 26.6 13.42 12.69 7.82 8.14
June 24.9 12.17 11.97 9.09 7.42 roof is covered with Sania, a local insulating material used
July 21.1 10.74 10.82 8.61 7.96 over the huts in the arid regions and the controlled unit with-
Aug 19.5 10.13 10.39 7.16 8.88 out any treatment and their comparative performance has
Sept 21.5 11.94 11.76 4.29 12.27 been studied and described in this paper. The purpose of this
Oct 20.5 12.86 12.51 3.28 18.61
study is to reduce heat load from the roof in arid regions by
Nov 17.3 10.87 10.69 2.71 21.96
Dec 15.6 9.87 9.82 2.38 22.27 identifying suitable passive techniques for cooling of build-
ings with RCC roof as major heat load in the buildings is
Average 20.97 12.03 11.72 5.04 14.92 only from the roof.

temperatures are very high and humidity is very low. Aver-

age maximum temperature recorded in the hottest month of
May is 41:6 C with a highest of 48:9 C recorded on May
25, 1958. The average relative humidity in the afternoon
was 16% in May. The minimum temperature in the coldest
month of January was 9:5 C with lowest 2:2 C recorded
on January 31, 1905. The average wind speed is 10:9 km h.
These parameters suggest that conditions are very harsh in
arid regions where conventional power is also in scarcity,
but passive cooling has good scope in this region for bet-
ter comfort conditioning. E"orts have been made by Gupta
et al. [4] by considering various aspects of passive cool-
ing design of rural houses with special reference to arid ar-
eas viz. orientation of house, inclination and whitening of
roof, thermal insulation by incorporating air pockets in the
roof and necessary ventilation to button up the house dur-
ing the day and open up during night and also underground
structures. Isolated studies have been carried out to cool the
buildings by di"erent passive techniques viz. radiant cool-
ing [5], evaporation cooling [6], painted by white paint [7]
and roof pond with movable thermal insulation [8]. Com-
parative performance of a few passive techniques has been
studied for cooling of metallic sheds (roof is also made of
metallic sheets) in arid areas by Nahar et al. [9].
Solar radiation [10] on various tilted surfaces at Jodhpur,
i.e. gate way of Thar desert in western Rajasthan, India has
been analysed and shown in Table 2. From Table 2 it is
clear that for a single storey building having all four sides
exposed to the Sun, 36.7% of heat load in the building is
from the roof during summer (AprilSeptember). Generally,
roof is always exposed but some walls may not be exposed
to the Sun, in that case, heat load in the building may be
50% or more from the roof. As major heat load in the build-
ing is from the roof, therefore, conventional roof made of
2. Experimental
Eight identical test structures each having dimensions
1280 610 1100 mm3 have been fabricated. All the four
sides are made up of mild steel angle and galvanised steel
sheet. RCC (1:2:4) roof of 100 mm thickness has been
casted over the test structures. As major heat load in build-
ing is from the roof, therefore, following treatments in re-
duction of heat load from the roof were studied. All sides of
the test structures are closed by galvanised steel sheet and
no ventilation has been provided so that only treatment on
the roof can be compared. The schematics of the test struc-
tures are shown in Fig. 1(a) and 1(b). The actual installation
of test structures is depicted in Fig. 2.
2.1. Test structure Acontrolled unit without any
treatment
In this structure, as described above, sides are made up of
galvanised steel sheet and RCC roof. It is a controlled unit
without any treatment.
2.2. Test structure Bpainting by white cement
Heat load from the roof can be reduced by applying re-
5ecting coating on the roof. Generally, white wash is used
over the roof. White surface when new its re5ectance for
short wavelength is about 0.7 0.9. In this test structure,
roof was painted using white cement. The durability and
re5ectance of white cement painted surface are better than
that painted with white wash.
112 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116

2.3. Test structure Cvermiculitecement thermal
insulation over the roof
In this test structure, 50 mm thick cementvermiculite
(1:5) thermal insulation has been provided over the roof to
reduce heat load from the roof.
and high wind speed are available. By this technique, indoor
dry bulb temperatures can be achieved near the outdoor wet
bulb temperatures. In this test structure, the top of the roof
is provided with gunny bags and it is soaked with water
with the help of a storage tank and dripper for controlling
the 5ow of water without any arrangement of pump.

2.4. Test structure Droof pond=nocturnal cooling and 2.6. Test structure Fbroken white glazed tile pieces
heating stuck over the roof

Roof pond is a unique passive system that can be used Heat load from the roof can also be reduced by apply-
for both passive heating during winter and passive cooling ing re5ecting coating on the roof. Generally, white wash
of buildings during summer. The most widely used system is used over roof. When the white surface new, its re-
employs a shallow pond of water in a thermal contact with a 5ectance for short wavelength is about 0.7 0.9. But in actual
strong but highly conducting 5at roof and ceiling structures. practice, its eEciency is limited because roof accumulates
In this test structure, top of the roof is provided with a dust, therefore, its re5ectance gradually decreases since dust
shallow pond with 100 mm thick water column and 40 mm absorbs solar radiation. To overcome this problem in this test
thick thermal insulation is provided on sides and top of structure, broken white glazed tiles pieces are stuck over the
the pond. Side thermal insulation is a Dxed one, while top roof. This technique can provide a glossy=glazed white, thin,
thermal insulation is movable (Fig. 3). In the summer, during smooth and weather-resistant, durable and highly re5ecting
night, movable thermal insulation is taken out and water is surface so that heat load in the building can be minimised.
cooled during night by nocturnal cooling, a unique feature
in arid areas where day temperatures are very high, while
night temperatures are very low and pond is covered with
thermal insulation during the day. Heat from the building
is transferred to the environment through the tank to the
ambient environment, and cooling is obtained. Heat load
during the day from the roof has also been minimised by
using roof pond with thermal insulation. It cuts o" solar
radiation from the roof to the building environment. During
winter, movable thermal insulation is taken out during the
day so that water in the tank gets heated by solar radiation
and heating of building. The pond is covered with movable
thermal insulation during night so that hot water in the pond
transfers heat into the building and the environment inside
the building gets heated.

2.5. Test structure Eevaporative cooling

The most important passive cooling process is evapora-

tion, which occurs to some extent whenever the vapour pres-
sure of water in the form of droplets or wetted surface is
higher than the partial pressure of the water vapour in the
atmosphere. Roof evaporation technique consists of laying a
thin uniform organic material lining (double layers of empty
jute bags) on the roof in close contact. The gunny bags are
soaked with water. The water evaporates by the heat ab-
sorbed by the roof and the air movement. The incident heat
due to Suns rays on the roof is also utilised for evapora-
tion of the water present in the wet matting and, therefore,
it cannot add to the heat content of the roof. The higher the
incident radiation of the Sun and wind speed on the roof,
the higher will be the quantity of water evaporated and the
cooling e"ect. Therefore, this technique is very useful for
cooling of buildings in arid areas where high solar radiation Fig. 1. (a,b) Schematics of the test structures.
 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116 113

Fig. 1. (Continued).

2.7. Test structure Gair void thermal insulation over

the roof

Heat load in the building from the roof can be minimised

by using thermal insulation over the roof. In this test struc-
ture, air void insulation was provided by placing inverted
earthern pots having 100 mm diameter and 125 mm height
over the roof. Air gap between roof and earthern pot acts as
a thermal insulation over the roof.

2.8. Test structure HSania thermal insulation over the

roof

In this test structure, roof is covered with Sania, a local

thermal insulating material used over the huts in the arid
regions. Fig. 2. Passive test structures in the Deld.
114 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116

over the roof can be used to reduce heat load from

the roof and hence cooling of the environment inside
buildings.
The studies have been carried out on test structures
with all sides closed, only roof has been treated with
di"erent passive techniques. Therefore, studies revealed
that heat load can be reduced considerably by provid-
ing broken white glazed tile pieces over roof. Average
fall in temperature inside test structure while roof has

been provided with white glazed tile is 11:3 C. If we ex-
trapolate it on a regular building, a fall in temperature

of about 5 C can be observed. Already roof of regular
room has been provided with broken white glazed tile

pieces and average 5:1 C fall in ambient temperature has
been observed as compared to a regular room without any
treatment.
This technology can provide a glossy white thin, smooth
and weather-resistant durable, rock-type, toping surface to
roof that has been found to work as the Drst line of de-
fence from adverse e"ects due to Suns radiation and rains.
The technology of Dxing broken white glazed tiles on the
roof does not require any maintenance but its application
demands precaution so as to make it an integral part of roof
construction. Tile pieces of area 3 cm2 and above are re-
quired so that accumulation of water on the roof can be
avoided. Otherwise, it may cause erosion of materials in
joints; roofs must be provided with proper slope of the or-
der of 1:80 and high quality of portland cement and sand
(1:3) mortar. The mortar layer of 0.4 is laid after mixing in
it 5% aqua proof, an inorganic water-prooDng solution, that
also acts as a binder for the tile pieces and to stabilise UV
Fig. 3. Roof pond : Summer cooling and winter heating.
radiation.

3. Results and discussion

4. Conclusion
3.1. Performance of di=erent passive test structures
The fall in roof and ambient temperature inside test struc-
tures treated with di"erent passive techniques for cooling
The ambient temperatures inside test structures were
is in increasing order with respect to Sania over the roof,
measured round the clock and the diurnal variation is
cementvermiculite thermal insulation over the roof, roof
shown in Fig. 4. for a typical clear summer day. The dif-
painted with white cement, roof provided with air void insu-
ferent meteorological parameters are shown in Table 3.
lation, roof provided with shallow pond with movable ther-
The average fall in air temperatures inside test structures
mal insulation, pieces of white glazed tiles stuck over the
for di"erent passive cooling techniques as compared to
roof and evaporative cooling. Considering the ease of oper-
the controlled unit is shown in Table 4. From Table 4,
ation and requirement of water, pieces of white glazed tiles
it is clear that the fall in roof and ambient temperature
stuck over the roof has been found best for cooling of build-
inside test structures treated with di"erent passive tech-
ings for better comfort conditioning in arid areas.
niques for cooling is in increasing order with respect to
Sania over the roof, cementvermiculite thermal insula-
tion over the roof, roof painted with white cement, roof
provided with air void insulation, roof provided with a Acknowledgements
shallow pond with movable thermal insulation, pieces
of white glazed tiles stuck over the roof and evapora- The authors are grateful to the Director, CAZRI, Jodh-
tive cooling. Thus, evaporative cooling was found best pur and Head of the Division of Agricultural Engineering
for conventional roof, but it requires about 50 l=m2 wa- and Energy for providing necessary facilities and constant
ter per day, therefore, pieces of white glazed tiles stuck encouragement for the present study.
 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116 115

Fig. 4. Diurnal variations in the ambient temperatures inside test structures.

Table 3
Di"erent meteorological parameters on a clear typical summer day

Time Relative humidity Wind speed Wind direction Atmospheric pressure Global solar radiation
(%) (km=h) (deg.) (mbar) (MJ=m2 )

7 70.0 12.9 223.0 980.1 0.69624

8 68.6 13.7 228.0 980.7 1.36656
9 65.8 10.1 238.0 981.3 2.05776
10 63.4 12.0 224.0 981.3 2.78136
11 60.6 14.8 218.0 981.1 3.31236
12 57.8 16.9 220.0 980.7 3.6522
13 56.1 17.5 219.0 980.1 3.79152
14 53.8 15.8 222.0 979.4 3.62592
15 52.3 16.8 219.0 978.5 2.79432
16 49.3 19.5 212.0 977.8 2.86848
17 48.8 20.6 199.0 977.1 2.18088
18 44.5 21.9 195.0 976.9 1.34496
19 45.8 19.5 192.0 977.0 0.68328
20 47.2 15.6 196.0 977.2
21 45.8 18.6 197.0 977.6
22 48.5 12.8 199.0 978.0
23 52.9 16.8 191.0 978.1
24 58.7 19.7 192.0 978.1
1 65.9 19.7 191.0 977.6
2 69.1 20.8 214.0 977.1
3 70.6 17.3 196.0 976.5
4 71.5 17.6 191.0 976.3
5 72.7 17.2 197.0 976.6
6 73.2 18.2 197.0 977.1 0.47448
7 73.8 21.6 185.0 977.6 0.78768
Total 1486.7 427.9 5155.0 24459.8 32.418
Average 59.5 17.1 206.2 978.4
116 N.M. Nahar et al. / Building and Environment 38 (2003) 109116

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Performance of di"erent passive techniques Pune, India: India Meteorological Department, 1967.
[4] Gupta JP, Nahar NM, Chaurasia PBL, Sharma P. Design
No Passive technique Average temperature consideration for passive cooling of rural houses in arid areas.
di"erence as compared Proceedings of the NSEC 1989, Renewable energy for rural

to control ( C) development. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 1989. p. 250 4.
Winter Summer [5] Catanoloth S, Cuomo V, Piro G, Ruggi DV. The radiative cooling
of selective surfaces. Solar Energy 1975;17:839.
1 Painting with white cement +0:1 5:4 [6] Jain SP. Solar passive design of natural cooling of buildings
2 Vermiculite insulation over roof +1:0 3:5 by natural resources=roof surface evaporation. Proceedings of the
3 Nocturnal cooling +2:6 6:7 national seminar on thermal comfort in building by solar passive
4 Evaporative cooling Not used 13:2 architecture. Jodhpur centre: The Institute of Engineers (India). 1994.
5 Pieces of white glazed tiles +0:1 11:0 p. 5.
6 Air void insulation +1:0 5:8 [7] Harrison AW. Radiation cooling of TiO white paint. Solar Energy
7 Sania over roof 0.0 3:4 1978;20:18591.
[8] Hay HR, Yellot JJ. Natural air-conditioning with roof pond and
movable insulation. ASHRAE Transactions 1969;5:17884.
[9] Nahar NM, Sharma P, Purohit MM. Studies on solar passive cooling
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[10] IMD. Solar radiation on inclined surfaces. Pune, India: India
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