*3.3. Equivalent Energy—Location*

For this section, the dwellings were placed in both their original locations and in the same ones, their original building materials (Table 4) were assigned and their original morphology was respected.

When analyzing the dwellings in their original locations, it can be seen that the resulting order changes slightly with respect to when they were placed in the locations of New Mexico (Figure 7). The circular dwellings keep occupying the highest places. The hogan achieves the largest difference, and three dwellings increase their equivalent energy with respect to their original locations. The longhouse, the grass house and the wigwam isolate more energy in New Mexico than in their original locations. The grass house obtains the biggest difference.

However, all these differences are not significant, and even the value corresponding to some models, such as the plank house, is nearly the same. This means that the capacity of an envelope to modify the outdoor conditions, the pair temperature–humidity, does not depend on the location of the dwelling. An envelope provides a higher or a lower difference, and it is this capacity, higher or lower, that is used to adapt a building to its environment.



**Figure 7.** Equivalent energy for original building materials (KJ/kg m<sup>2</sup> of living surface).

Taking as an example the highest values, the hogan was built in a temperate region located in the southwest of the United States (Bsk, Bwk and Dfb zones, according to the Köppen classification), whereas the wigwam was typical of the Great Lakes region, where temperatures are cooler and the humidity level is higher (Dfa, Dfb, Cfa and Cfb). The longhouse was built in this second region too, and this is the dwelling with the lowest Δh value. The results for hogan and pueblos (Bsk, Dfb and Cfb), both built in the same region, New Mexico, point to the same direction.

By observing the scatter graph shown in Figure 6, it can be seen that the highest values of the shape factor (9) are associated with high values of average outdoor temperature (3), whereas the highest values of equivalent energy (11) are linked to the highest levels of indoor humidity (7). It can be seen that Δφ (8) and Δt (5) determine the value of Δh (11) equally, but they are not related to the shape factor (9).

If the data are analyzed without taking into account the living surface of the dwellings, and just the energy isolated by these specific envelopes is observed (KJ/kg) (Figure 4), it can be seen that the earthlodge achieves to duplicate the result of the wigwam. In this case, the plank house obtains the highest value of Δh.

However, if this information is analyzed from the point of view of the sedentary process, it can be seen that the dwellings that were used by the sedentary groups were also those which are equivalent to a smaller amount of energy. These three dwellings, the longhouse, the plank house and the pueblo adobe house, are equivalent to a smaller amount of energy per living square meter. All of them are orthogonal in plan, the model that is usually adopted by the sedentary communities.

Among them, the Native Americans who developed the agriculture and sedentarism the most, those groups which inhabited the zone of New Mexico and built the adobe dwellings, chose the model that was equivalent to the greatest amount of energy. However, if they wanted the model that was equivalent to the highest level of energy among the most popular designs, they should have chosen the wigwam (0.17 KJ/kg m2), taking into account the living surface, and the plank house (5.64 KJ/kg), if comparing exactly the models presented in this research.
