Cooling Effects of Natural Ventilation of a Home in Hot Dry Climate

Whereas natural ventilation design in hot climates is intended to mitigate discomfort effect of thermal transmission into building interiors, the uncertainty of the aggregate effect of the strategy on interior air temperature in hot dry climates has been expressed. This study investigated how air temperature in rooms of a residential building in a hot dry climate is affected by some natural ventilation strategies. A combination of expost-facto and experimental designs, the study employed instrumentation to observe temperature, wind speeds and relative humidity in around a residential building in Yola in the months of March and April. Mean temperature values were compared to establish any significant difference between spaces and periods of the day. Spaces were paired and their mean-temperatures compared using the t-statistics (at 0.05 level of significance) to draw inference. Natural ventilation in the building resulted in lower temperatures indoors compared to outdoors; the reduction was however majorly insignificant. Variation in wind direction and location of spaces was found to have significant effect on cooling of spaces.