A field experiment on the cooling effect of night ventilation in Malaysian terraced houses

Night ventilation is recognized as one of the effective and low-energy means to reduce daytime temperatwe, thus cooling load, in buildings under various climates. This study aims to examine the cooling effect of night ventilation in the most common residential type in Malaysia, i.e. terraced houses. A field experiment was conducted in June and July in two adjacent typical terraced houses under various open window conditions in order to evaluate night ventilation effect against no ventilation, daytime ventilation and full-day ventilation respectively. In this paper, the cooling effect of night ventilation was compared with the other ventilation conditions based on indoor air temperature at 1.5m height. Besides, vertical distribution of air temperature from floor to ceiling in each room was analyzed. The potential of indoor air temperature reduction by applying night ventilation and insulation is discussed