Proposed measures to protect temporary roofs from unwanted heat gains

This study focuses on the uncompleted multi-storey residential buildings located in hot climates. This construction pattern is common in the case of incremental housing, where additional floors are added to the building as housing needs grow. Top roofs in these buildings are usually left without thermal insulation until the rest of upper floors are erected. This causes higher thermal discomfort in the top flats compared to the lower ones. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate thermal effect of some proposed temporary measures that are intended to protect these roofs from unwanted heat gains until the rest of storeys are constructed. This has been carried out using thermal modelling to find out the effect of these measures on the amount of heat transfer through the roof in both summer and winter times. The analysis showed that it is possible to achieve competent thermal protection of the top roof compared to the layered thermal insulation using simple, cost-effective, and reversible measures. Among the examined measures, covering the roof with white foldable sheets and the use of pergolas have been found to be the most effective measures. In both cases, a reduction of 38% in conductive heat transfer through the top roof in summer was observed compared to the unprotected modelling case.