Social Housing retrofit: improving energy efficiency and thermal comfort for the housing stock recovery in Mexico

Social Housing retrofit: improving energy efficiency and thermal comfort for the housing stock recovery in Mexico

Authors:

Luis Medrano and Azucena Escobedo

Organisation of Presenter:

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México

Abstract:

Social housing in Mexico has been built without looking after internal thermal comfort. This situation has conducted people to live in adverse conditions, to rise the use of air-conditioning systems for those who can afford it, or to abandon the houses looking for a better place. Currently Mexico has nearly five million abandoned dwellings and 40% of built housing deficit requires expansion and/or improvement.
Retrofit of existing buildings has been carried out in the world to improve energy efficiency or to reduce green housing emissions; however, in Mexico retrofit is not widely applied and less in social housing. This paper proposes and applies in two case studies with hot, semi-humid climate; a method to evaluate the improvement of indoor thermal comfort through enhancing the envelope U value. Finally, an economic analysis is conducted to evaluate retrofitting social housing with Mexican government programs funds or by user resources.