  Due to the current environmental situation, energy saving has become the
leading drive in modern research. Although the residential houses in tropical
climate do not use air conditioning to maintain thermal comfort in order to
avoid use of electricity. As the thermal comfort is maintained by adequate
envelope composition and natural ventilation, this paper shows that it is
possible to determine the thickness of envelope layers for which the best
thermal comfort is obtained. The building is modeled in EnergyPlus software and
HookeJeves optimization methodology. The investigated house is a typical
residential house one-storey high with five thermal zones located at Reunion
Island, France. Three optimizations are performed such as the optimization of
the thickness of the concrete block layer, of the wood layer, and that of the
thermal insulation layer. The results show optimal thickness of thermal
envelope layers that yield the maximum TC according to Fanger predicted mean
vote.
