PhD Success for Roy Sigalingging

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Photograph of Roy Sigalingging

Congratulations to Roy Sigalingging on being awarded his PhD in June 2020. Roy’s thesis is entitled ‘Applying the Passivhaus Standard to terraced housing in Jakarta – analysis for a hot and humid tropical climate’.

Passivhaus is a building energy and comfort standard that was developed in Germany. A set of performance criteria has to be met for a building to receive Passivhaus certification. Passivhaus is commonly used across Europe, but its suitability for hot humid climates has not been widely investigated.

In Roy’s study, a typical terraced house in Jakarta, Indonesia was monitored and simulated to create a validated virtual model of the dwelling. Different components of the Passivhaus standard were then applied to the model to test if the Passivhaus criteria could be met. Complex combinations of fabric and cooling/dehumidification systems had to be configured before the standard could eventually be met, suggesting that Passivhaus is not an easy standard to achieve in tropical climates.

Roy and his family have now returned to Indonesia, where Roy will continue with his research career.

Roy has presented his work at major international conferences and published a paper in a leading research journal:

  1. Sigalingging RC, Chow D and Sharples S (2020) Applying the Passivhaus Standard to a terraced house in a hot and humid tropical climate – evaluation of comfort and energy performance, Building Services Engineering Research & Technology, 41(3), 247–260
  2. Sigalingging RC, Chow D and Sharples S (2019) Modelling the impact of ground temperature and ground insulation on cooling energy use in a tropical house constructed to the Passivhaus standard. Proc. SBE19 Conference, pp 1-7, Cardiff
  3. Sigalingging RC, Chow D and Sharples S (2019) Assessing internal conditions in typical housing built to Passivhaus Standard in Jakarta, Indonesia – analysis for a hot, humid, tropical season. Proc. CIBSE Technical Symposium, pp 1-13, Sheffield, UK
  4. Sigalingging RC, Chow D and Sharples S (2019) Evaluating the effect on thermal comfort and energy use of applying the Passivhaus standard to a dwelling in a hot humid climate – a case study in Jakarta, Indonesia. Proc. CATE 2019, Comfort at the Extremes, 521-533, Dubai
  5. Sigalingging RC, Chow DHC and Sharples S (2017) Assessing cooling energy load and dehumidification in housing built to Passivhaus standard in Jakarta, Indonesia. Proc. PLEA 2017, 33rd International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Edinburgh