Climatic Evaluation of Projects for Improvement of Rural Housing (Case study: Mountainous Areas of Tehran Province)

Indigenous architecture is derived from nature, climate and the environment, and due to limited access to modern fossil energy sources, has tried to have the least degree of dependence on them. Imitating the indigenous architecture of a region is the first and most sustainable step in designing climate-friendly architecture. The Housing Foundation of the Islamic Revolution, as the main organization of housing in rural areas of Iran, has conducted extensive studies to identify and evaluate the features of indigenous architecture in rural housing and has presented a plan to improve rural housing in some climatic regions. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the projects of improving rural houses in mountainous areas of Tehran regarding energy consumption and, if necessary, provide corrective solutions to improve their thermal performance. For this purpose, it is necessary to first evaluate the energy consumption of rural housing in projects prepared by the Housing Foundation and compare them with the standards of energy consumption in Iran. If the level of energy consumption is higher than the standard, it is necessary to use corrective solutions. Corrective solutions are derived from the physical characteristics of the optimal model. Physical characteristics of the optimal pattern represents the optimal state of physical characteristics of a building such as length-width ratio, building orientation, number of floors and building density, surface-volume ratio, opening-wall ratio, the relationship of optimal pattern with adjacent buildings, number and direction of exterior walls in terms of fresh air, the presence of semi-open spaces (porches), the protrusion of the roof, the canopies and the color of the exterior walls in a specific climate that can be achieved with the help of rules, standards and energy simulations. The final goal of this article is to evaluate and modify the physical features of the projects for improvement of rural housing in the mountainous areas of Tehran province. This is achieved by adapting them to the optimal state of the physical features of the building in this climate. The method of this research is descriptive which has been done using simulation tools and Energy Plus 9.3 software. The results indicate that the implementation of remedial strategies will save energy by 29% in these projects.