Abstract

Energy poverty is a global issue that affects many people and intersects with both politics and science. The work aims to identify the risk of energy poverty for Mexico within one of the most representative buildings for its population, known as social housing. It analyzed the fluctuation of this phenomenon by applying passive construction strategies at the 1,119 municipalities that make up the eight southern states of the Mexican Republic. The study scrutinized the energy demand of current social housing by using air conditioners, coupled with six passive strategies leveraging thermal insulation and reflective coatings, to achieve thermal comfort while addressing energy poverty by using the 2M indicator (an index to measure the economic costs necessary per family to satisfy energy needs). Findings revealed that the projected energy demand for air conditioning will cause more than 70 % of homes to experience energy poverty as they strive to maintain thermal comfort. However, applying passive strategies decreases energy poverty in homes, underscoring their significance. Employing the 2M indicator per month allows for detecting families' vulnerability dynamics, particularly during the climate summer months (April-September), a nuance not captured in the annual perspective. These results underscore the imperative to advocate for residential policies integrating passive strategies and scrutinizing energy tariff structures.