Strategies for reducing heating and cooling loads of uninsulated rammed earth wall houses

The research reported in this paper investigated the potential reduction of heating and cooling loads in a hypothetical uninsulated rammed earth wall house. The analysis was performed in three different climate zones in Australia, namely: climate zone 3, 5 and 7, representing hot arid, warm temperate and cool temperate climate, respectively. The investigation involved simulating the energy load for a rammed earth house with different building parameters using the home energy rating software AccuRate developed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). In Australia, new building designs must comply with the energy efficient provision of the Building Code of Australia in the National Construction Code (NCC), and one method of compliance is through an assessment of the predicted energy loads. The simulation results show that it is possible for an uninsulated rammed earth wall house in Australian climate zones 3 and 5, to fulfil the minimum requirement of the NCC as long as the building is designed carefully by optimising a number of passive solar strategies. In climate zone 7, however, uninsulated rammed earth houses cannot meet the NCC requirement even after applying passive solar design strategies.