hybrid

The built environment in China is required to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 against the 1980 design standard. A particular challenge is how to maintain acceptable comfort conditions through the hot humid summers and cold desiccating winters of its continental climate regions. Fully air-conditioned sealed envelopes, often fully glazed, are becoming increasingly common in these regions.

The potential application of Passive and Hybrid Downdraught Cooling to residential buildings is explored using an experimental facility constructed and tested in Seville, Spain. The experiment was devised as a prototype of the downdraught evaporative cooling system for the Nottingham University entry to the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe competition.

Environmental and economic concerns linked to conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HY AC) have sparked a renewed interest in natural ventilation, passive cooling and other low energy microclimate control strategies for buildings. In Canada, the combination of extreme weather conditions, wind variability, transient occupancy patterns and high internal heat gains may hinder the feasibility of implementing natural ventilation as an exclusive means of ventilating non-domestic buildings.