Assessing the indoor comfort and carbon dioxide concentration in high-rise residential buildings in Kuala Lumpur: the people's housing programme

The government of Malaysia has an ongoing People's Housing Programme (PPR) to construct one million affordable housing units across the country. It is trying to address the problem of squatters and housing woes of the low-income population, especially in densely populated areas. The first-generation design samples of these high-rise PPR are now being superseded by a new design for the second-generation of the construction of such buildings. After the occupation of the buildings, the users have generally installed air conditioned units, which indicates that the original design process of the buildings had not taken into consideration the environmental issues and the subsequent indoor comfort and air quality of the units. The main objective of this research is to investigate the actual indoor comfort and carbon dioxide level which could be found at three different zones in both PPR generations. The results for the first-generation of PPR showed that the average operative temperature at the different levels of the buildings surpass the CIBSE Guide A, ASHRAE Standard 55-2010 and Malaysian Standard 1525:2014 limits. For the second-generation, the gradually increasing operative temperature profile for the unobstructed facing zone has resulted from the gradient wind profile in the urban areas. The eddies and recirculation regions of the wind movement at the obstructed facing zone had reduced operative temperature at intermediate part of the building and the weaker stack effect happened in the enclosed facing zone decreased the operative temperature at higher part of the buildings. The outcomes of the research intend to inform future design of these buildings, so that they achieve indoor comfort and air quality for the occupants as well as the subsequent reduction in consumption of energy and resources.