Energy poverty, occupant comfort, and wellbeing in internally displaced people's residences in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Internally displaced people (IDP) due to conflict and violence were estimated as 41.3 million in 55 countries as the end of the year 2019, the highest figure ever recorded. Sri Lanka has not yet prioritized the health and wellbeing of households in building designing, with the emerging heat island effect making the lives more desperate for IDP. This study focused on the effect of energy poverty on occupant comfort in determining the quality of life of people and adaptive behaviors to manage heat strain in overheated interiors of rehabilitated residences in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Field investigations consisted of personal monitoring, questionnaire surveying and physical measurements in four clusters of rehabilitation residence programmes in four regions. The study found that IDP were suffering from hidden energy poverty, with mean electricity consumption of 52 kWh per household per month. Residents have marginal (29%) access to clean fuels for cooking and accountable for an abnormal particulate matter count of 360 951 particles per cubic centimeter. Findings explicitly revealed the presence of overheated spaces with mean thermal preference of −0.6 conveying the need of cooler indoor environment. People tend to exhibit behavioral adjustments to cope up with prevailing extreme temperatures. Severity of heat stress informed by modified wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) reporting 90% (28–31 °C) of households facing higher risk of heat strain while remaining 10% (>31 °C) are in hazardous situation. Predicted mean vote (PMV) was 1.29 explains warm sensation with predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) 44.1% not complying to ASHRAE 55 standards. This detrimental combination of fuel poverty, lack of thermal comfort, and unacceptable indoor air quality has been a significant factor for 62% of the residences reporting at least one type of illness and being more prone to cardiovascular and respiratory disorders (37%). Thus, the study evidenced the presence of energy poverty and overheated interiors in the IDP's residences in hot tropics of Sri Lanka.