Passiflora as vertical greenery systems in the building: The effects on the indoor thermal environments

Several studies had been carried out to investigate the effects of vegetation as vertical greenery systems on the indoor thermal environments, and one of them is Passiflora. This paper presents a study to evaluate the effects of Passiflora as vertical greenery system with Gro-wall type on the indoor thermal environments. Two rooms in Bandung with different conditions, i.e., with greenery systems and without greenery system equipped with horizontal shading has been evaluated. The with-greenery system-room was considered as an experiment room while another was considered as a control room. Field measurement was conducted during the rainy season for two weeks under the different densities of the vegetation (i.e. 0%, 20%, 50%, and 100%). Major thermal parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and globe temperature were measured at 1.1 meters above floor level in the center of each room. Meanwhile, outdoor conditions were measured by a weather station. PMV as indoor thermal comfort index was used to evaluate the indoor thermal performance. The results showed that Passiflora at density 100% significantly lowered the indoor air temperature compared to that of the room without greenery but shaded. Meanwhile at density of 50%, 20% and 0% the indoor thermal environments showed no significant different condition from those of default room. The thermal sensation analyzed by PMV indicating cold to neutral sensation under density 100%, while those at density 50% were considered to be slightly cool to warm simply due to the strong direct solar radiation.