ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 235

Indoor relative humidity levels were found to follow, in some proportion, the fluctuations of outdoor relative humidity. Figure 9 shows the outdoor and indoor relative humidity of all monitored
rooms plotted against the relative humidity comfort zone (30% < RH < 80%). This season presented maximum outdoor relative humidity of 96%, minimum of 14% and average of 60%. In comparison to the outdoor, the indoor presented lower amplitude in the fluctuations, the average maximum indoor relative humidity of the 24 monitored rooms was 85%, average indoor was 35% and
total average was 62%. Another important observation from these figures is the fact that indoor
relative humidity levels did not follow the same or similar pattern in all rooms, like the case of air
temperatures. In this case, it is suggested that indoor relative humidity was influenced by the lifestyle of the occupants, assuming that operation of openings as well as occupants activities such
as cooking, ironing, and showering have influenced the relative humidity levels indoors. These
graphs also highlight that although indoor relative humidity levels vary with the time; these levels were within the comfort range (30% < RH < 80%) most of the time. The 24 monitored rooms
were 97% of the time inside this range; therefore, no further analysis was required in terms of
relative humidity during this season.

Figure 9: Outdoor and indoor relative humidity for 12 houses common rooms and bedrooms against
the comfort range (RH <30% >80%) over the cool season

Figure 10 exemplifies the outdoor and indoor temperature profiles against the 90% and 80% acceptability comfort zone along week five, for rooms 1A, 2A, 3A facing North. In most of the rooms,
indoor air temperature followed the same fluctuations patter with minimal air temperature differences. Despite that, outdoor air temperatures reached their lowest temperature of 6.0°C, indoor
temperatures never fell below 14.2°C during this week. However, as can be seen from the figures,
these temperatures are still well below the comfort zone and all the houses failed to offer comfortable conditions.

Thermal performance of industrialised housing construction in Centra

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