Mitigating High Energy Consumption for Residential Buildings in The Gambia.

Abstract As the price of energy goes up, more and more concern has been focused on the sustainable development of residential houses. One of the best solutions would be construction of low energy consuming “passive” houses. A study of residential buildings in The Gambia shows that most occupants of the buildings have persistent and growing problems with the indoor environment. Most buildings are characterized by poor design in relation to the climate, which requires a great deal of energy for cooling during extreme climate. Other problems are poor natural ventilation, inadequate surface volume ratio and poor building orientation. The concept of the passive house has been popular in Germany and in the whole Europe during the last decade; however, there is no official residential passive housing standard at the present time in The Gambia. This paper identifies passive design strategies that can be adopted in this sub-tropical climate region to minimize the use of energy for cooling, improve occupant’s comfort and enhance low energy architecture. The objective is to reduce over-dependence on electricity demand and energy use in residential buildings. In this paper, the feasibility of developing passive houses in The Gambia will be analyzed. This research, will explores certain passive design strategies through appropriate selection of building materials, proper building orientation, proper positioning of windows, adequate natural ventilation and application of some design elements which can provide natural cooling and reduce the energy used for cooling in the buildings.