Thermal Comfort Characteristics of Transit and Residential Mosque During Prayer Time

Abstract

Thermal comfort in worship buildings is related to energy consumption and devoutness in performing daily prayer. It is important to monitoring and evaluate thermal comfort in mosque as most of people in Bogor and Bandung are moslem who do performing daily prayer in 5 times a day. Thermal comfort is very important to help carry out daily worship in a devout situation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the thermal comfort characteristics of transit and residential mosques during prayer time. The study was conducted in 12 mosque that classified as transit and residential mosque. Transit mosques are typically located in near main road, usually smaller in size and have fewer amenities than residential mosques. Most of residential mosques had worship area bigger than transit mosques. Transit mosques have worship area in range of 50-150 m² while residential mosques had worship area in range of 81-1540 m². All of mosque are in optimal comfort condition during Fajr prayer time. As solar radiation increases during daytime, ambient temperature inside worship places also increases and thermal comfort in worship area of mosque tend to shift out of comfort zone. Transit mosque tends to slower to shift in of comfort zone compared to residential mosque because transit mosques were ventilated naturally without air conditioning. The shifting of thermal comfort is depended on weather outside the building as dominant determining factor in addition to other factors such as indoor material, air conditioner operation and ventilation.