Passive downdraught evaporative cooling applied to an auditorium

The performance of a passive cooling system was evaluated as part of design works for the project of an auditorium. The passive cooling system uses the atmosphere as natural heat sink and incorporates a solar chimney together with an evaporative cooling tower. The natural ventilation is enhanced with the help of the solar chimney and fresh air is cooled down by passive downdraught evaporative cooling. The application of this system to the acclimatization of an auditorium was evaluated.

Environmental sustainable Iranian traditional architecture in hot-humid regions

This paper concentrates on the results of sustainability caused by climatic elements in Iranian traditional architecture in Hot-Humid regions. In a vast country such as Iran, with different climatic zone, traditional builders have presented a series of logical solutions for human comfort. The aim of this research is to demonstrate traditional architecture in Mild-Humid climate of Iran as a sample of sustainable architecture. Sustainability in architecture means conserving constructions for the future, in terms of physical durability planet protect conserving on energy resources.

The air infiltration and ventilation center: The history and technical program of IEA Annex V

The Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre is operated under Annex V of the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems implementing agreement of the International Energy Agency. The primary objective of the AIVC is to provide a high quality international technical and information forum covering the areas of ventilation and air infiltration in the built environment with respect to efficient energy use, good indoor air quality and thermal

Indoor environment for energy performance of buildings – a new European draft standard

European Directive for Energy Performance of Buildings was approved in the beginning of 2003. The transition period is 3-6 years depending of the article. European Standardisation Organisation (CEN) has drafted several standards to help the member countries implementing the directive. One of these is the Criteria for the indoor environment including thermal, indoor air quality (ventilation) light and noise. The standard specifies design values of indoor environment, values to be used in energy calculations, and methods how to verify the specified indoor environment in the buildings.

Using the utilization factor concept for natural ventilation

A well-known parameter in the calculation of solar gains for the heating requirements is the utilization factor concept. This parameter allows the assessment of the heating requirements diminishment due to the contribution of the solar gains, and it can be easily calculated as a function of the building inertia, and the ratio between solar gains to losses. The present paper analyses the utilization factor equation in order to obtain the relations among all the involved variables. Thus, using the transfer function method, a new and realistic utilization factor equation is obtained.

Improving ventilation and envelope characteristics in order to decrease the energy consumption in existing buildings

The building sector represents a great percentage of the total consumption of energy of a country, and of this, most is due to the existing buildings. The great number of existing buildings in comparison with the new buildings, and the worst constructive quality in the first ones, they explain the previous asseveration. It is, therefore, of a primordial importance, to promote measures guided to limit the energy consumption in these buildings, what can be obtained through the rehabilitation of the same ones.

A calculation model for Trombe walls and its use as a passive cooling technique

A low energy technique for heat removal from the interior of a building under summer conditions is the employ of natural ventilation. There are several ways to promote this ventilation. The use of Trombe walls to obtain this objective is studied in the present work, with the aid of a combined mathematicaldifferences finites model. This is a transient model developed to take into account the thermal inertia of the wall and that can be easily applicable to a particular Trombe wall to estimate its behaviour.

Eliminating the need for mechanical cooling

This paper challenges the conception that comfort can exist only w/in strict parameters, should be achieved w/o inhabitant interaction, and cannot be achieved w/o mechanical means. A period of research was conducted followed by the redefinition of several standards of practice. A mixed-use adaptive re-use design application was developed and simulated in an effort to combat the perceived necessity of mechanical cooling systems (Fig. 1).

Statistical simulation of user behaviour in low-energy office buildings

A large number of design guidelines and tools are available for the design of passive cooling systems. However, the building engineer should take several uncertainties into account since the actual use of the building, the building physical properties or the user behaviour are uncertain. One promising approach to include these uncertainties in the design procedure is the use of statistical models: The design parameter is defined by a mean value and its deviation.

Cooling season post-occupancy evaluation of a low energy complex school (City Academy) in the UK

Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of buildings has begun to receive more attention from the UK construction industry. In many cases, POE results indicate that even advanced designed buildings are high energy consumers and caused high levels of discomfort amongst occupants. In the UK, there is a move for routine use of POE in the construction industry. This paper discusses the in-use performance of an Advanced Naturally Ventilated secondary school building in the UK. The building features open plan classrooms, night cooling and automatically controlled solar shading and ventilation openings.

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