Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated spaces and under indirect evaporative passive cooling conditions in hot–humid climate

• This field study evaluated thermal comfort in a Venezuelan bioclimatic dwelling.
• People not habituated to air-conditioned environments felt comfortable in VBP-1.
• Although Tc were similar, participants felt slightly cooler in Bedroom than Living Room.
• Increasing air velocity mechanically, resting people felt slight cool in Bedroom.
• The Bedroom can feel comfortable even if increase the metabolic activity of people.

This article pursues to determine the thermal comfort in the Bioclimatic Prototype Dwelling (VBP-1). VBP-1 is a dwelling designed and built in the middle of a slum in Maracaibo, Venezuela according to bioclimatic criteria of energy efficiency and a conception on sustainable urban and architectural development. Strategies and techniques applied in VBP-1 shall favor the achievement of indoor thermal conditions of comfort, which is evaluated from the adaptive perspective, considering thermal perceptions and preferences of potential users as well as comfort temperature estimated on this study. Surveys were applied during three consecutive days in two different weather conditions of the year: warm and dry (March) and hot and rainy (July). It is concluded that for most of the consulted subjects, VBP-1 is thermally comfortable (70% with value 0 according to ISO 10551 scale). Undoubtedly, this thermal comfort is associated to the applied design strategies which guaranteed that temperature conditions of the indoor air were very similar to outdoor temperatures during the evaluation period, for the case of naturally ventilated space; while in the case of a space with Indirect Evaporative Passive Cooling Systems (IEPCS), lower temperatures that sensibly improve comfort conditions, especially with most air movement, were achieved.