Ecuador is starting to consider climate change as a priority for the country development. Recently, was founded the Sub-secretariat for climate change, and many Ministry started to insert related topic in the political agenda. Particularly, Urban Development and Housing Ministry, MIDUVI, launched in 2011 the competition “Dwellings for climate change” in order to improve the basic social house that is still constructing in all the climates of the country. For instance, Ecuador, even small, has a unique climatic diversity: in the Andes the climate is tropical mountain, in the Amazons is tropical wet and in the Coast is hot, both arid and humid, depending on the specific position. One of the competition goals was to put in evidence the need of different design for each climate, even for social dwellings, that have to be very cheap. The National Institute of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (INER) is also developing some prototypes for the different climates of Ecuador [1]. In this paper, a simulation study has been conducted in order to estimate the discomfort hours (both undercooling and overheating) that inhabitants could feel in the base case (the actual MIDUVI social house) and in the three competition winner prototypes. Simulations have been conducted for the climate of nowadays (Typical Meteorological Year –TMY) and for the future (2050 and 2080) taking into account the global warming effect under the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) A2 scenario. Because of in Ecuador heating and air-conditioning systems are used only by a small part of the population (the richer one), the analysis was conducted thinking in naturally ventilated buildings, searching for the total discomfort hours during the year.

Global warming affects the built environment by changing the environmental conditions under which buildings operate. This change probably means a shift in thermal demand, from a predominant demand for heating to a higher demand for cooling in many climates. For instance, in cold climates global warming seems to be a self-decreasing phenomenon because of lower energy demand in warmer environments. In warmer climates, like the Mediterranean, and in the hottest climates (both humid and arid), global warming must be regarded as one of the main factors (the others are the change in comfort standards and the heat-island effect) in increasing the energy demand to cool buildings. This chapter analyses the environment of various cities, characterised by mild average temperatures and small thermal oscillations, that can be regarded as Mediterranean climate emplacements. Today these cities have more heating than cooling demand but in the future will probably have higher cooling requirements. Results show that by 2050, in most of the considered emplacements, cooling demand will be higher than heating demand and emissions will rise proportionally. Solutions to this problem must be sought in the flexible operation of buildings, and policies should focus on summer-related issues: good natural ventilation, protection from the sun, and internal gain reduction, rather than insulation, air infiltration reduction and solar access.