Stay cool without fossil fuel. A passive eco-cooler for low-income population in informal settlements
Abstract With climate change severe events, more and more vulnerable populations suffer from extreme heat waves. This paper presents a hands-on experimental idea for testing vernacular passive cooling strategies using traditional Shisha clay funnels for the Egyptian hot dry climate. Several clay funnels were investigated in terms of shape, size and form. The clay funnels were measured and simulated for their efficiency in accelerating air flow inside residential units and ability to enhance the air velocity if used combined with cross ventilation strategies. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted in ANSYS Fluent to understand the airflow behaviour inside the simulated test shoe boxes resembling living rooms - using the standard k-∈ turbulence model - for single and multi-units’ configurations. Followed by experimental test cells application for the cooling system and monitoring for testing thermal performance. The simulation results showed significant enhancement in air flow and air speed inside the test room compared to conventional windows, while the test cells monitoring showed an average reduction in indoor temperature and humidity with 2 degrees and 15 % respectively. Further monitoring is needed for other alternations of the eco-cooler funnel design for better performance.