Design Optimization of Vernacular Building in Warm and Humid Climate of North-East India Manoj Kumar Singh, PhD Local Environment Management and Analysis (LEMA), Université de Liège, Chemin des Chevreuils, 1 - 4000 Liège, Belgium; Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), C-80, Shivalik, Malviya nagar, New Delhi 110017, India Sadhan Mahapatra, M.Tech. Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, Assam, India Jacques Teller, PhD Faculté des Sciences Appliquées, Department ArGEnCo, Local Environment Management and Analysis (LEMA), Université de Liège, Chemin des Chevreuils, 1 - 4000 Liège, Belgium ABSTRACT Vernacular buildings are evolved through trial and error method over the period of time. These buildings are constructed more on ‘design-based approach’ suited to a particular climatic condition and socio-cultural setup rather than emphasizing technological solutions or prescriptive requirements. However, in recent times, due to quest for better thermal comfort, energy consumption is increasing in these naturally ventilated buildings. So, it is an urgent need to analyse the present level of thermal comfort and the occupant’s expectation in these buildings. In case of design based approach, passive solar design, ventilation, insulation on the building envelope, shading and glazing area, proper orientation of buildings etc. are the key parameters for optimization process. In this study, a vernacular building of warm and humid climatic zone of North-East India is considered. Thermal performance study has been done by carrying out year long measurements of environmental parameters both at indoor and outdoor of the building along with thermal comfort survey and interaction with the occupants. The comfort and neutral temperature for different seasons of the year have been evaluated in the study. Solar energy modular simulation tool TRNSYS 17 is used to carry out simulations of the building. Building 3D model is generated in TRNSYS and design optimization has been done by carrying out parametric simulations for different scenario such as wall thermo-physical properties and thickness, window to wall ratio, glazing type, orientation, shading, infiltration, ventilation and internal load. The objective of the simulations is to improve the indoor thermal environment close to the comfort temperatures obtained during comfort survey. Indoor temperature profile of the optimized building shows significant reduction in number of discomfort hours compared to the base case. INTRODUCTION Vernacular buildings are the structures that use the bioclimatic concepts and locally available building material to a large extent (Singh et al., 2011b). This provides an edge to vernacular buildings to withstand with the local climate constraints through adaptation. However, vernacular buildings are mainly constructed on design based approach and evolve over the period of time through trial and error method (Ruiz and Romero, 2011; Singh et al., 2010a; Singh et al., 2010b; Singh et al., 2011b). These buildings attract attention of researchers because these structures represent an excellent harmony between environment, available building material and resources, socio-economic status and socio- cultural need of occupants, climate pattern and comfort, thus putting forth a unique example of 30th INTERNATIONAL PLEA CONFERENCE 16-18 December 2014, CEPT University, Ahmedabad 1