Finding Patterns of Construction Systems in Low-Income Housing for Thermal and Energy Performance Evaluation through Cluster Analysis

Energy consumption in buildings depends on many factors, including envelope materials. This paper aims to propose a method based cluster analysis for finding reference models actual construction systems of low-income housing. Such can be used future thermal and energy performance studies. Data the composition sample 106 dwellings were obtained through field survey Florianópolis, southern Brazil. Cluster analyses performed group similar materials together, therefore, model was each cluster. Computer simulations hypothesis tests verify whether represented sample. Three from analysis. 1 comprised houses with ceramic-brick walls, concrete floor, slabs. 2 ceramic tiles, wooden ceilings. 3 cement better than other clusters cold season (mean degree-hour 1299 cooling 1361 heating model). over hot 1014 1451 heating). showed worst 3793 2988 Thus, have shown that three differ represent their properly. practical objective obtaining models.