Ventilative Cooling Control Strategies Applied to Passive House in Order to Avoid Indoor Overheating

The increasing number of highly insulated and air tight buildings leads to the concern of indoor environment overheating. This research studies the possibility of applying natural ventilation as a way to avoid high temperatures indoors. A monitored passive house was modelled in ESP-r and the impact of natural ventilation on indoor temperatures was simulated. The multi-zonal energy model was coupled with an airflow network and several control strategies were tested for the openings of the dwelling. Thirteen control settings were simulated. They combined the cases of single-sided ventilation and cross ventilation for both night-time and day-time. The strategies also included the possibility to have the openings closed when the outdoor temperatures were within a specific range. The goal was to identify the most suitable control strategy to avoid overheating in the studied dwelling and to investigate the possibility of having indoor temperatures consistently lowered by the natural ventilation.