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Just like passive heating, cooling your building using passive strategies is
important for reducing energy usage in your building. Specifically, utilizing
passive cooling strategies like natural ventilation, air cooling, and shades
can reduce your demand for mechanical cooling while maintaining
thermal comfort.
[Natural Ventilation]
Natural ventilation, also called passive ventilation, uses natural outside air
movement and pressure differences to both passively cool and ventilate a
building.
Natural ventilation is important because it can provide and move fresh air
without fans. For warm and hot climates, it can help meet a building's
cooling loads without using mechanical air conditioning systems. This can
be a large fraction of a building's total energy use.
Successful natural ventilation is determined by having high thermal
comfort and adequate fresh air for the ventilated spaces, while having
little or no energy use for active HVAC cooling and ventilation.
You can choose the right strategy based on the temperature and humidity
of your site. The following chart shows how much these different
strategies can extend the comfortable climate range for people.
When not to use natural ventilation:
Sites with high levels of acoustic noise, such as near heavy traffic zones,
may be less suitable for natural ventilation because large openings in the
building envelope can make it difficult to block outside noise. This can
sometimes be solved by using acoustical ventilation louvers.
Also, sites with poor air quality, such as adjacent to busy freeways, may
also be less desirable for natural ventilation. Such sites may overcome
poor outdoor air quality with filters and ducting, though this usually
requires some mechanical fan systems.
Quantifying Ventilation Effectiveness:
To measure the effectiveness of your ventilation strategies, you can
measure both the volume and speed of the airflow.
The volume of the airflow is important because it dictates the rate at
which stale air can be replaced by fresh air, and determines how much
heat the space gains or losses as a result. The volume of airflow due to
wind is:
Q_wind = K A V
Q_wind = airflow volumetric rate (m/h)
[Wind Ventilation]
Wind ventilation is a kind of passive ventilation that uses the force of the
wind to pull air through the building.
Wind ventilation is the easiest, most common, and often least expensive
form of passive cooling and ventilation. Successful wind ventilation is
determined by having high thermal comfort and adequate fresh air for the
ventilated spaces, while having little or no energy use for active HVAC
cooling and ventilation.
not. Placing openings across from, but not directly opposite, each other
causes the room's air to mix, better distributing the cooling and fresh air.
Also, you can increase cross ventilation by having larger openings on the
leeward faces of the building that the windward faces and placing inlets at
higher pressure zones and outlets at lower pressure zones.
Placing inlets low in the room and outlets high in the room can cool spaces
more effectively, because they leverage the natural convection of air.
Cooler air sinks lower, while hot air rises; therefore, locating the opening
down low helps push cooler air through the space, while locating the
exhaust up high helps pull warmer air out of the space. This strategy is
covered more on the stack ventilation page.
Steering Breezes:
Not all parts of buildings can be oriented for cross-ventilation. But wind
can be steered by architectural features, such as casement windows, wing
walls, fences, or even strategically-planted vegetation.
Architectural features can scoop air into a room. Such structures facing
opposite directions on opposite walls can heighten this effect. These
features can range from casement windows or baffles to large-scale
structures such as fences, walls, or hedgerows.
Wing Walls:
Wing walls project outward next to a window, so that even a slight breeze
against the wall creates a high pressure zone on one side and low on the
other. The pressure differential draws outdoor air in through one open
window and out the adjacent one. Wing walls are especially effective on
sites with low outdoor air velocity and variable wind directions.
ventilation over Bernoulli's principle is that it does not need wind: it works
just as well on still, breezeless days when it may be most needed. In many
cases, designing for one effectively designs for both, but some strategies
can be employed to emphasize one or the other. For instance, a simple
chimney optimizes for the stack effect, while wind scoops optimize for
Bernoullis principle.
For example, the specially-designed wind cowls in the Bed ZED
development use the faster winds above rooftops for passive ventilation.
They have both intake and outlet, so that fast rooftop winds get scooped
into the buildings, and the larger outlets create lower pressures to
naturally suck air out. The stack effect also helps pull air out through the
same exhaust vent.
After wind ventilation, stack ventilation is the most commonly used form
of passive ventilation. It and Bernoulli's principle can be extremely
effective and inexpensive to implement. Typically, at night, wind speeds
are slower, so ventilation strategies driven by wind is less effective.
Therefore, stack ventilation is an important strategy.
Successful passive ventilation using these strategies is measured by
having high thermal comfort and adequate fresh air for the ventilated
spaces, while having little or no energy use for active HVAC cooling and
ventilation.
Strategies for Stack Ventilation and Bernoullis Principle:
Designing for stack ventilation and Bernoulli's principle are similar, and a
structure built for one will generally have both phenomena at work. In
both strategies, cool air is sucked in through low inlet openings and hotter
exhaust air escapes through high outlet openings. The ventilation rate is
proportional to the area of the openings. Placing openings at the bottom
and top of an open space will encourage natural ventilation through stack
effect. The warm air will exhaust through the top openings, resulting in
cooler air being pulled into the building from the outside through the
openings at the bottom. Openings at the top and bottom should be
roughly the same size to encourage even air flow through the vertical
space.
To design for these effects, the most important consideration is to have a
large difference in height between air inlets and outlets. The bigger the
difference, the better.
Towers and chimneys can be useful to carry air up and out, or skylights or
clerestories in more modest buildings. For these strategies to work, air
must be able to flow between levels. Multi-story buildings should have
vertical atria or shafts connecting the airflows of different floors.
Solar radiation can be used to enhance stack ventilation in tall open
spaces. By allowing solar radiation into the space (by using equator facing
glazing for example), you can heat up the interior surfaces and increase
the temperature that will accelerate stack ventilation between the top and
bottom openings.
Installing weatherproof vents to passively ventilate attic spaces in hot
climates is an important design strategy that is often overlooked. In
addition to simply preventing overheating1, ventilated attics can use
these principles to actually help cool a building. There are several styles
of passive roof vents: Open stack, turbine, gable, and ridge vents, to
name a few.
To allow adjustability in the amount of cooling and fresh air provided by
stack ventilation and Bernoulli systems, the inlet openings should be
adjustable with operable windows or ventilation louvers. Such systems
can be mechanized and controlled by thermostats to optimize
performance.
Stack ventilation and the Bernoulli Effect can be combined with crossventilation as well. This matrix shows how multiple different horizontal
and vertical air pathways can be combined.
Solar Chimneys A solar chimney uses the sun's heat to provide cooling,
using the stack effect. Solar heat gain warms a column of air, which then
rises, pulling new outside air through the building. They are also called
thermal chimneys, thermosiphons, or thermosiphons.
The simplest solar chimney is merely a chimney painted black. Many
outhouses in parks use such chimneys to provide passive ventilation.
Solar chimneys need their exhaust higher than roof level, and need
generous sun exposure. They are generally most effective for climates
with a lot of sun and little wind; climates with more wind on hot days can
usually get more ventilation using the wind itself.
Advanced solar chimneys can involve Trobe walls or other means of
absorbing and storing heat in the chimney to maximize the sun's effect,
and keep it working after sunset. Unlike a Trobe wall, solar chimneys are
generally best when insulated from occupied spaces, so they do not
transfer the sun's heat to those spaces but only provide cooling.
Herma chimneys can also be combined with means of cooling the
incoming air, such as evaporative cooling or geothermal cooling.
Solar chimneys can also be used for heating, much like a Trobe wall is. If
the top exterior vents are closed, the heated air is not exhausted out the
top; at the same time, if high interior vents are opened to let the heated
air into occupied spaces, it will provide convective air heating.
This works even on cold and relatively cloudy days. It can be useful for
locations with hot summers and cold winters, switching between cooling
and heating by adjusting which vents are open and closed.
[Night-Purge Ventilation]
Night-Purge Ventilation (or "night flushing") keeps windows and other
passive ventilation openings closed during the day, but open at night to
flush warm air out of the building and cool thermal mass for the next day.
Night-purge ventilation is useful when daytime air temperatures are so
high that bringing unconditioned air into the building would not cool
people down, but where night-time air is cool or cold. This strategy can
provide passive ventilation in weather that might normally be considered
too hot for it.
Successful night-purge ventilation is determined by how much heat
energy is removed from a building by bringing in night-time air, without
using active HVAC cooling and ventilation.
Night flushing works by opening up pathways for wind ventilation and
stack ventilation throughout the night, to cool down the thermal mass in a
building by convection. Early in the morning, the building is closed and
kept sealed throughout the day to prevent warm outside air from entering.
During the day, the cool mass absorbs heat from occupants and other
internal loads. This is done largely by radiation, but convection and
conduction also play roles.
Because the "colt" of night-purge ventilation is stored in thermal mass, it
requires a building with large areas of exposed internal thermal mass.
This means not obscuring floors with carpets and coverings, walls with
cupboards and panels, or ceilings with acoustic tiles and drop-panels.
Using natural ventilation for the cooling also requires a relatively
unobstructed interior to promote air flow.
Limitations:
[Air Cooling]
In very hot climates it's often necessary to prevent outdoor air from
getting into the building un-conditioned during the heat of the day.
However, natural ventilation can still be an option even in hot climates,
particularly in hot dry climates. Two techniques can be used: faster air
movement, and passively cooling incoming air.
Faster air movement on people's skin helps because it encourages
evaporation of sweat, making them feel cooler at higher temperatures
than normal.
Passively cooling incoming air before it is drawn into the building can be
achieved by evaporative cooling and/or geothermal cooling.
Evaporative Cooling:
If the inlet air is taken from the side of the building facing away from the
sun, and is drawn over a cooling pond or spray of mist or through large
areas of vegetation, it can end up several degrees cooler than outside air
temperature by the time it enters occupied spaces.
Geothermal Cooling:
Inlet air can also be cooled by drawing it through underground pipes or
through an underground plenum (air space). The air loses some of its heat
to the surfaces over which it passes. Underground, these surfaces tend to
be at roughly the annual average temperature, providing cooling in
summer and warming in winter. This strategy is best for dry climates, as
moisture in dark cool places can lead to poor indoor air quality.
Many early versions of geothermal cooling used rock stores or gravel beds
for their thermal storage capacity; however, the additional resistance to
air flow was quite high, often requiring a powered fan or pump. Large
open plenums can provide almost as much cooling or warming with only
minimal obstruction.
Opening Types:
Windows that only open halfway, such as double-hung and sliding
windows, are only half as effective for ventilation as they are for daylight.
Some casement windows and Jalousie windows, however, can open so
wide that effectively their entire area is useful for ventilation.
Casement windows can deflect breezes, or can act as a scoop to bring
them in, depending on wind direction. Jalousie windows (horizontal
louvered glazing) can catch breezes while keeping out rain.
You can also use ventilation louvers instead of windows for your openings.
Their coefficients of effectiveness will be the same as windows of the
same geometry, such as Jalousie windows. Ventilation louvers often open
so wide that nearly all their area is useful for ventilation. They are
typically oriented horizontally to prevent rain from entering; this is an
advantage over most windows. Ventilation louvers also provide visual
privacy, and can even provide acoustic damping.
(http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/buildings/wind-ventilation)