• search hit 17 of 49
Back to Result List

Residential Building Construction Techniques and the Potential for Energy Efficiency in Central Asia: Example from High-Altitude Rural Settlement in Kyrgyzstan

  • Building construction in rural Kyrgyzstan is heavily dominated by earthen buildings. Old and inappropriate residential building structures contribute significantly to high domestic space heating energy consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relevant building construction techniques. However, the scant information on Kyrgyz building techniques, especially for high-altitude rural settlements, was the prime motivation to perform the presented study. The key objective of the study is to investigate residential building construction techniques in high-altitude rural Kyrgyzstan, and this was to be achieved by house visits during field trips, literature review, and pilot interviews with local people. The analysis enabled the detailed identification of individual building envelopes as well as predominant building materials to be recorded. Based on the assessment, a housing profile was created that represents the typical characteristics of traditional rural Kyrgyz houses. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the potential forBuilding construction in rural Kyrgyzstan is heavily dominated by earthen buildings. Old and inappropriate residential building structures contribute significantly to high domestic space heating energy consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the relevant building construction techniques. However, the scant information on Kyrgyz building techniques, especially for high-altitude rural settlements, was the prime motivation to perform the presented study. The key objective of the study is to investigate residential building construction techniques in high-altitude rural Kyrgyzstan, and this was to be achieved by house visits during field trips, literature review, and pilot interviews with local people. The analysis enabled the detailed identification of individual building envelopes as well as predominant building materials to be recorded. Based on the assessment, a housing profile was created that represents the typical characteristics of traditional rural Kyrgyz houses. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the potential for energy savings in rural Kyrgyz houses of 50–70%. However, local conditions prevent people from making improvements to all domestic energy efficiency parameters simultaneously. Therefore, the study developed a ‘sequential roadmap’ to reduce domestic space heating demand in different phases based on simulation studies. Existing low-income rural Kyrgyz habitations can use the presented roadmap to reduce domestic space heating demand sequentially to overcome financial barriers and, therefore, contribute to establishing sustainable buildings in Kyrgyzstan. These results may be partially replicated in other Central Asian rural communities depending on their location and building characteristics.show moreshow less

Download full text files

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author:Kedar MehtaORCiD, Wilfried Zörner, Richard GreenoughORCiD
Language:English
Document Type:Article
Year of first Publication:2022
published in (English):Energies
Publisher:MDPI
Place of publication:Basel
ISSN:1996-1073
Volume:15
Issue:23
Pages:23
Article Number:8869
Review:peer-review
Open Access:ja
Version:published
Tag:Central Asia; building construction; cold climate; earthen high-altitude houses; energy efficiency; vernacular buildings
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:573-29752
Related Identifier:https://doi.org/10.3390/en15238869
Faculties / Institutes / Organizations:Fakultät Maschinenbau
Institut für neue Energie-Systeme (InES)
Licence (German):License Logo Creative Commons BY 4.0
Release Date:2022/12/05