In Chile, an Atmospheric Decontamination Plan (PDA) has been developed to reduce concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in cities deemed “saturated” with these particles. The plan includes various measures, such as the thermal insulation of homes and the replacement of heaters. This study presents an analysis of the indices of four indoor air quality variables (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and PM 2.5) in different types of homes with varying levels of PDA implementation in the city of Temuco, Chile. Regarding the temperature variable, only one type of home was found to be within comfort limits, with an average of 20.6 °C and a variation of ±3.52 °C (SD). Concerning humidity, independently owned homes with complete and moderate ADP implementation had average humidity levels between 64.82% ± 7.19% and 55.6% ± 6.11%, respectively. For CO₂, only homes with moderate implementation showed averages slightly below (average 991 ppm) the maximum allowed (1000 ppm). As for PM 2.5, all homes exceeded the standard, ranging from 44.4 µg/m³ to 130 µg/m³, with very high variations. This demonstrates that PM 2.5 concentrations consistently exceeded the limits established by the World Health Organization (15 µg/m³).

Traditional energy poverty indicators based on observed expenditure or consumption tend to underestimate households that restrict their energy use due to economic constraints. This study evaluates 53 urban dwellings in Temuco (Chile) and integrates the Energy Performance Gap (EPG), defined as the difference between theoretical energy demand and actual consumption, together with the %EDA indicator, which quantifies the annual share of hours associated with indoor energy demand activation conditions. Results show that 53% of the dwellings exhibit positive EPG values (ranging from +2% to +66%), suggesting potential underconsumption associated with thermal deprivation. In environmental terms, 45% of households present %EDA values above the sample mean (34%), while 11% exceed 60% of the year outside operational indoor ranges. A weak concordance is observed between conventional indices (TPR, MEPI, and hEP) and the physical metrics of building performance and habitability, reflected in low Spearman correlations (ρ between −0.10 and 0.16). After incorporating EPG and %EDA, the adapted indices show a substantial improvement in their association with physical variables (up to ρ = 0.51 with %EDA). These findings reveal the presence of hidden energy poverty not captured by expenditure-based approaches and underscore the need to integrate economic and physical metrics to improve diagnostic accuracy at the dwelling level.

Building thermal envelopes are typically characterized by thickness and thermal transmittance, although energy performance depends on the interaction between thermophysical properties, layer number and arrangement within the wall. This study analyzes how climate modifies their relative contribution to annual heating and cooling demand under intermittent air conditioning. A standardized reference dwelling (154 m²) was simulated using DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus across five Köppen climate groups A-E. 200 configurations were evaluated to determine marginal performance thickness ranges, and, using Latin Hypercube Sampling, 6,300 multilayer configurations (1-5 layers) were evaluated to estimate the relative contribution of exterior layer thermal resistance, interior layer resistance, total heat capacity, and number of layers. The marginal performance thickness range varied between 0.10-0.28 m in Cairo and 0.40-0.50 m in Barrow, where exterior layer thermal resistance showed the strongest association with demand (β = -0.82). The number of layers showed greater relative weight in Cairo (β = -0.65) and Temuco (β = -0.53), while in Cali resistance and total heat capacity showed comparable correlations with demand (r = -0.59 in both cases). In two-layer walls, two groups of configurations with similar mean conductivities but distributed in opposite positions within the section showed mean demand percentiles of 31.5 and 63.3, suggesting that the spatial distribution of thermophysical properties may provide information not captured by aggregate values. None of the identified two-layer design families achieved a consistently low demand percentile across the five climates, indicating that specifying the wall through a single aggregate metric does not capture the observed hierarchy of mechanisms.

This study assessed the impact of 39 active and passive energy efficiency measures on the energy demand of a prototype dwelling, modeled through parametric simulations in DesignBuilder across nine climatic zones in Chile, classified according to the Köppen system. Each measure was evaluated individually (single-measure scenarios); three variation levels were evaluated to quantify their relative influence on energy demand. Results indicate that passive strategies are more effective in cold and humid climates, where increasing wall insulation thickness reduced energy demand by up to 45%, and improving airtightness achieved a 43% reduction. In contrast, in tundra climates or areas with high thermal variability, some measures, such as green façades or overhangs, increased energy demand by up to 49% due to the loss of useful solar gains. In desert climates, characterized by high diurnal temperature variation, thermal mass played a more significant role: high-inertia walls without additional insulation outperformed lightweight EPS-based solutions. The findings suggest that measure selection must be climate-adapted, prioritizing high-impact passive strategies and avoiding one-size-fits-all solutions. This work provides quantitative evidence to inform residential thermal design and support climate-sensitive energy efficiency policies. This study delivers a single-measure comparative atlas; future research should integrate multi-measure optimization together with comfort/cost metrics.