The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE)
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT)

Seminar on Energy and Low Income Tropical Housing

On 24 March 2016, JGSEE-CEE at KMUTT in cooperation with the University of Warwick, the University of Cambridge, National Housing and Building Research Agency of Tanzania, University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Uganda Martyres University successfully organized a “Seminar on Energy and Low Income Tropical Housing” which held at Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn Bangkok.

The seminar is under the research project “Research Programme on Energy and Low-income Tropical Housing (ELITH)” which jointly funded by the United Kingdom Research Council, the  Department for International Development (DFID) and the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)  in a Programme called Energy and International Development. For Thailand, the National Housing Authority and the Electricity Generating Authority are project partners and potential beneficiaries, as both organizations would develop the methodology further for implementation. 

The overall objective of the project is to develop method to enhance energy and carbon performance of low and medium income housing and to promote it through the use of energy and carbon performance labeling, training, and other means of information dissemination. This seminar was held as an activity to disseminate outputs from this project.

On this occasion, Dr. Terence Thomas, the Head of Development Technology Unit, the University of Warwick, reported on the background of the ELITH project while Assoc. Prof. Amnat Chidthaisong, Deputy Director of JGSEE-CEE, delivered the welcome and opening remarks.  Following the opening ceremony, Ms. Suchada Sirorangsri, the representative of the National Housing Authority, Thailand, presented Housing policy of Thailand and ASEAN then Miss. Kritika Rasisuddhi, the representative of the Demand Side Management Office of the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand, presented Appliance energy labeling to housing energy. Besides, Prof Surapong Chirarattananon, head of the BEST Lab at JGSEE, presented on “An Energy and Carbon Rating Scheme for Residential Dwellings” and Asst. Prof. Dr. Pattana Rakkwamsuk, SEEM at KMUTT, presented on “Potential reduction in electricity consumption and carbon emission by the residential sector in Thailand”

In the afternoon, the seminar was arranged with two parallel sessions in which the first session was focused on the issue of the Sustainable Human Dwellings: Community and Urban.  Five presentations in this session included: (i) Key Issues of Low-Income Housing and State of the Art Solution, (ii) Income, Livelihood and Energy Consumption in Thai Context, (iii) Urban Housing Solutions: Density, Microclimate and Energy, (iv) Dwellings and Embedded Carbon, and (v) Daylighting and Thermal Comfort in Buildings.  For the second parallel session, the presentations were focused on technical issues of a development of energy label for residential house in Thai context.  The presentation topics were (i) Concept of Energy for Low-income Tropical Housing, (ii) Surveys of Housing Features and Environmental Quality of Medium and Low Income Earners in Thailand, (iii) Sustainable Architecture, (iv) Design for natural air flow and daylighting in Dwellings, and (v) OTTV and Energy Rating of Dwelling.  All the presentations in this seminar are available in the project website at http://low-e-housing.jgsee.kmutt.ac.th/activities.htm.