Airbase publication

This design guide is based on the work of IEA-EBC Annex 62 “Ventilative Cooling” and the research findings of the participating countries.

This guide is designed for both architects and engineers to support the design of ventilative cooling systems especially in the early design stages.

This background report presents insights on recommendations into how ventilative cooling is integrated in EN standards, ISO standards, national standards, national legislation and national compliance tools. The information presented derives from feedback by IEA EBC Annex 62 experts of 11 countries who have completed a questionnaire. This gives a high level of insight into the current status, and thereby the recommendations to be given on the basis of this knowledge.

This report summarises the outcome of the work of the initial working phase of IEA ECB Annex 62 Ventilative Cooling and is based on the findings in the participating countries. It presents a summary of the first official Annex 62 report that describes the state-of-theart of ventilative cooling potentials and limitations, its consideration in current energy performance regulations, available building components and control strategies and analysis methods and tools.

In general, but in particular in nearly zero-energy buildings, there is a very strong tendency to drastically reduce the heating demand. One adverse side effect is that in doing so, it often increases the risk of overheating in summer and shoulder seasons. This is in particular, but not only, the case for lightweight constructions.

Computer classrooms present challenges for cooling because internal heat gains higher than typical classrooms. Focused on thermal comfort, this paper presents the results of a field and computational study of a computer seminar room in west England. A mechanical ventilation system with phase change materials thermal storage has been installed in the room to provide thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Monitored data of internal air temperature, CO2 and humidity were analysed and compared with current requirements for indoor air quality and comfort.

Adopting natural ventilation as a low impact retrofit strategy for space cooling is attractive due to the cooling potential of untreated outdoor air for large periods of the extended cooling season, particularly in northern climates. Furthermore, it is important to characterise the performance of natural ventilation components in successfully transferring the cooling potential of outdoor air to the occupied zone.

Worldwide the food system is responsible for 33% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2050, the total food production should be 70% more than current food production levels. In the UK, food chain is responsible for around 18% of final energy use and 20% of GHG emissions. Estimates indicate that energy savings of the order of 50% are achievable in food chains by appropriate technology changes in food production, processing, packaging, transportation, and consumption.

One-year monitoring results of environmental conditions in a UK seminar room where the Cool-phase® ventilation and PCM battery system has been installed indicate thermal comfort and good indoor air quality throughout the year. CFD analysis indicates that air temperature and air distribution is uniform at occupants’ level.

This paper presents a thermal simulation validation study of the typical precision that a trained thermal simulation engineer can expect to obtain for the simulation of a room connected to a naturally ventilated double skin facade. The open source building thermal simulation tool EnergyPlus is used to predict air and surface temperatures in a free running weather exposed test cell.

Children spend the majority of their weekdays in classrooms that often have low indoor air quality and limited financial resources for the initial and running costs of mechanical ventilation systems. Designing effective natural ventilation (NV) systems in schools is difficult due to the intense use of the classroom spaces and the dependence of NV on building geometry and outdoor conditions. Building thermal and airflow simulation tools are fundamental to predict NV system performance in the design phase.