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Comparative Analysis of Passive Retrofit Strategies for Thermal Comfort Improvement in Public Library in Abuja

Ude Ogonnia Chisom, Modi Sule Zango, and Bobai Jonathan Luke

Abstract

Public buildings in Nigeria's rapidly urbanising cities increasingly depend on mechanical cooling to maintain habitable conditions, a costly, energy-intensive approach poorly suited to a strained national grid. This study examines passive design strategies as a climate-responsive alternative for enhancing thermal comfort in public library buildings within Abuja's tropical savanna (Aw) climate. A mixed-methods design combined qualitative case study analysis of three institutional libraries — Murtala Muhammed Library, Kano; the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida Library, FUTMINNA; and the Surry Hills Library and Community Centre, Sydney — with quantitative building performance simulation. The Bingham University Library Reading Hall, Karu, was modelled in DesignBuilder using the EnergyPlus engine and an Abuja Typical Meteorological Year dataset as an unoptimised baseline, against which five passive interventions were tested sequentially: orientation optimisation, solar shading, natural and night ventilation, thermal mass enhancement, and roof insulation with reflective coating. Cumulative application of these measures reduced the Predicted Percentage of People Dissatisfied from 97 percent to 11 percent and compressed peak indoor temperature from 40.1°C to 29.8°C. Solar shading and night-purged ventilation produced the largest individual gains. The study concludes that synergistic passive design offers Nigerian institutional architecture a viable route to comfortable, low-energy public buildings.

Keywords

Passive designThermal comfortPublic librariesBuilding performance simulationAbujaTropical savanna climate

References

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