The different aspects of both traditional and contemporary houses are summarised and given in table 15. From the thermal performance point of view, traditional houses are much better than inappropriately designed contemporary houses. This means that thermal performance is not the only criterion by which the use or abandonment of traditional and contemporary houses may be evaluated.

One of the main reasons why contemporary houses are preferred to the traditional is that they provide all the necessary hygiene services, lighting and ventilation. Most traditional houses lack sufficient lighting and ventilation and suffer from shortages in services.

In order to place a contemporary house into perspective, one must exhibit the comparison between the energy performances of a contemporary house, one that was built post 1970, as it relates to its counterpart, a house built with older house techniques, in the traditional way. The most important difference in the construction specifications of these house, as they are portrayed here is in the construction of the traditional house’s wall (adobe versus concrete and bricks) and in the roof (earth versus concrete).

ASPECT TRADITIONAL HOUSES CONTEMPORARY HOUSES SOLAR HOUSES Architectural Design -Inward looking with courtyard — Square or rectangular plan — One or two floors — Covered terraces — A body of water and fountain -Clerestory windows — Flat, domed and vaulted roofs -Outward looking — Free plan form — Multi-storey blocks — Small balconies — Vast glazed windows — Flat or pitched roofs -Free plan form — Sufficient glazed windows -Flat or pitched roofs — Any design Constructional materials and methods -Local materials found on the site of the house or brought from a nearby area — Simple constructions — Load-bearing walls -Materials are mostly imported or locally made with poor qualities -Frame structures — Simple constructions — No insulation — Non-load bearing walls -Materials are mostly imported or locally made with good qualities -Frame structures — Any constructions — insulation — Non-load or load bearing walls Occupancy patterns -Changed. -The ground floor is used in summer days and the first floor in summer nights and in winter -Unchanged because of the design restrictions. -Unchanged or unchanged because of no design restrictions. Planning -Compact planning with courtyard — Shortages in services -Incompact planning. No courtyard — Zoning problems -compact or incompact planning. Thermal performance -Satisfactory during both summer and winter and at all times. -Unsatisfactory during the times of overheating and under heating. -Satisfactory during both summer and winter and at all times. Non-thermal comfort problems -Necessity of annual maintenance — Shortages in services -Shortages in natural lighting and ventilation. -Weathering problems — No adequate house regulations — High influence of the house contractors — Acoustic problems -no weathering problems -low influence of the house contractors — no Acoustic problems Demand -Decreasing because of being not suitable for contemporary urban life -Increasing because of social and economic changes and contemporary life -Increasing because of social and economic changes and contemporary life

Table 1 Comparison analysis: Traditional versus Contemporary

The traditional house follows the characteristics discussed previously. It transpires from the results produced, that the energy performance of the organically insulated traditional house is clearly superior that of the contemporary house with no energy-efficient

considerations. ENERGY-10 is the software used for the specific project and is designed to develop guidelines for low-energy houses.

Annual Ensrcy Use KWYm2 ■ Contemporary house ^Traditional house □ Experimental Solar House Figure 2. Comparative Barographs. Energy Total annual energy use, plus breakout by heating, cooling, fan, and "other" uses (everything else)

Figure 3. Monthly Average Daily Energy Use Graphs

As was expected, upon comparing quantitatively the Experimental Solar House with the contemporary house, the solar house proves to be far superior in its energy savings performance. For instance, the contemporary house requires an astounding 4.95 Cyprus pounds per square meter for cooling purposes, whereas the solar house requires a mere 1.33. The overall energy requirements for the contemporary house, according the Energy 10 calculations, reach 368 kWh/m2 as compared to 121 kWh/m2 of the Experimental Solar House (figure 2 and 3).

CONCLUSION

The following techniques that were used in historical and traditional houses are used for the design of the Experimental Solar House:

• Clear topographical clarifications

• The positions in orientation to the sun path either to avoid direct sunlight entering the house of the opposite.

• The exploitation of breezes for ventilation and cross ventilation in the room

• The awareness and exploitation of the nature of flora and its use for practical functions (e. g. medicinal plants, fruit-bearing trees)

• A good insulation of walls (30-40cm width) and roofs,

• The small openings on the external walls for maximum insulation (north, east, west).

Elements, which are now fundamentally used in passive architecture, can be found in constructions created since 9000B. C. These examples, illustrate strong characteristics of historical architecture, which serve as fine examples of energy-saving architecture today and are used on the Experimental Solar House. Early examples include:

• The Solarium was predominant whether acting as an arched corridor, as a central axis or even when it evolved into a self-contained space.

• Courtyards, planted mostly with deciduous vegetation like grapevines, providing shade in the summer and admitting the sun in the winter

• Almost all openings placed on the south wall providing natural light and heat.

• Arseres allowed lighter hot air to go out of the house and be replaced by cooler air from outside in the summer

• Thymes (small dense bushes) blocked the arseres in the winter and provided thermal insulation.

• Roofs and floors were constructed in a typical insulating manner

• Courtyards were built to facing southwards, acting as a sunspace, receiving desired solar radiation in winter.

• The solarium admits the rays from the winter sun to penetrate and so solar radiation could be utilised in winter.

• In multiple thermal modes and varied design, the courtyard and the solarium moderate high summer temperatures — their careful construction combined with the surrounding landscaping lower the temperatures around the house.

The best-known applications of passive solar systems used in traditional houses were researched taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages for Cyprus. It is concluded that the passive systems that are most suited for Cyprus and used on the Experimental Solar House, are:

• Direct Gain: the simplest solar heating system and can be easiest to build. Areas of glazing not only admit solar radiation for heating but also high levels of daylighting and good visual conditions for the outside. Glazing is well researched and cheap and a material readily available. With adequate insulation of the house, it is possible to rely totally on direct gain as a passive solar system used in the case of Cyprus.

• Thermal Insulation: position of insulation externally on walls and roof. Thickness 70mm expanded polystyrene. Overall U-value of walls and roof 0.6 W/m2K.

• Thermal Storage (Interior Mass): The simplest heat storage approach is to construct the house of massive structural materials (reinforced concrete or brick blocks) insulated on the exterior, to couple the mass of the indoor space

• Glazing: For direct gain systems, south facing window area greater than about 10­12% of floor area require thermal mass, well distributed over floors, walls and ceilings to reduce temperature swings. 5% north wall openings are sufficient for cross ventilation during summer nights6. Types to be used: Low emmisivity glazing, argon-filled, double-glazed. Shading can be easily controlled for the non-heating season.

• Solar Control: By use of orientation (one of the long walls is facing south so that the available solar radiation is exploited in the winter), external shading devices, vegetation.

• Shape of house: rectangular but compact design (aspect ratio 1:1.33) with the longer axis pointing East and West7.

• Natural Ventilation: By use of cross ventilation, stack effect, night ventilation and ceiling fans.

Upon construction of the Experimental Solar House, careful monitoring was pursued, in order to measure its performance in use. Through monitoring the house from the 27/11/1999 until 18/12/2001, using computer data loggers, the internal temperature and relative humidity throughout the year remained steady (within the thermal comfort limits), despite the instability of external temperatures and humidity percentages. The best
thermal comfort is achieved in the months of April, May, October and November. These months needed no extra heating or cooling. The results showed that to achieve thermal comfort conditions, ventilation is required in the summer months (June, July, August and September). In this case, natural ventilation actually occurs, or if there are no breezes, then ceiling fans are applied. In the months of December, January, February and March passive solar gains are used to achieve thermal comfort. It must be noted that steps should be taken to avoid over heating in the summer. The same is to be said for the passive cooling needs in the summer. The results show that all heating requirements are covered through solar energy, while natural ventilation or ceiling fans cover all the cooling needs.

Comparative annual energy use was performed using computer simulation software Energy 10 resulting that the most energy efficient is the solar house (121 kWh/m[20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]) following the traditional (243 kWh/mf*) and final the contemporary (368 kWh/mP).

Because of Lefkosia’s climate, passive solar architecture works to its full capacity. This means that, a passive solar house has 100% energy saving potential. This theory has not remained at its conceptual stage as the Experimental Solar House has demonstrated it in practice. The construction of the solar house has a purpose that is multifaceted. It is an environmental success as well as an architectural one. The house itself will be able to provide excellent indoor air quality and natural lighting.