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

Social housing in Mexico has been built without considering internal thermal comfort. This situation has forced people to live in adverse conditions, increase 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 envelopés U value. Finally, an economic analysis is conducted to assess retrofitting social housing with Mexican government programs funds.