Question:

Give a description of currently available (not essentially commercially used) active and passive air
conditioning systems suitable for human thermal comfort in tropical region.

Answer:
Air conditioning for human thermal comfort in tropical region is focused on cooling the living
space. There are two main types.
1. Passive cooling systems.
Passive cooling is considered an "alternative" to mechanical cooling that requires complicated
refrigeration systems. By employing passive cooling techniques into modern buildings, it can
be eliminated mechanical cooling or at least be reduced the size and cost of the equipment.
Passive cooling is based on the interaction of the building and its surroundings. Adopting a
passive cooling strategy depends on the local climate. This approach works either by
preventing heat from entering the interior (heat gain prevention) or by removing heat from the
building (heat dissipation).
Under passive cooling, the efficiency of the building envelope can be maximized in a number
of ways to minimize heat gain:
Heat gain prevention methods
1. Microclimate and site design
- Determining the most favorable building location by analyzing the combined
availability of sun and wind.
2. Building orientation & layout
- Rooms can be zoned within the buildings in order to reject sources of internal heat
gain.
- Creating a flat, horizontal plan will increase the effectiveness of cross-ventilation
across the plan & locating the zones vertically can take advantage of temperature
stratification.
3. Using insulation and buffer zones to minimize conducted and radiated heat gains
- Insulation in the buildings envelope will decrease the amount of heat transferred by
radiation through the facades. This principle applies both to the opaque (walls and
roof) and transparent surfaces (windows) of the envelope.
4. Making selective or limited use of internal loads to avoid storing daytime heat gains.
- More energy-efficient lighting and electronic equipment tend to release less energy
thus contributing to less internal heat loads inside the space.
5. Shading windows, walls and roofs from direct solar radiation
- Shading both transparent and opaque surfaces of the building envelope will minimize
the amount of solar radiation. By shading the building structure, the heat gain
captured through the windows and envelope will be reduced.

6. Using lighter colored roofs to reflect heat Cool Wall

- Reflectivity is higher in light color than the dark color.
7. Changing behavioral and occupancy patterns
- Shutting off the lights and equipment of unoccupied spaces, operating shading when
necessary to reduce solar heat gains through windows, or dress lighter in order to
adapt better to the indoor environment by increasing their thermal comfort tolerance.
To maximize heat loss, following natural cooling method can be used:
Heat dissipation techniques
1. Thermal mass Earth coupling
Use of the building thermal mass as a heat sink. The thermal mass will absorb and
store heat during daytime hours and return it to the space at a later time. Thermal mass
can be coupled with night ventilation natural cooling strategy if the stored heat that
will be delivered to the space during the evening/night is not desirable.
There are two types
Direct coupling - Earth coupling uses the moderate and consistent temperature of the
soil to act as a heat sink to cool a building through conduction. In this method,
passively shaded areas around earth-coupled slabs keep surface ground temperatures
lower during the day and allow night-time cooling.

Indirect coupling - A building can be indirectly coupled with the earth by means of
earth ducts. An earth duct is a buried tube that acts as avenue for supply air to travel
through before entering the building. Supply air is cooled by way of conductive heat
transfer between the concrete tubes and soil. Therefore, earth ducts will not perform
well as a source of cooling unless the soil temperature is lower than the desired room
air temperature.

2. Natural cooling
Use of ventilation or natural heat sinks for heat dissipation from indoor spaces.
Natural cooling can be separated into following different categories:
Air movement or Ventilation
Uses the physical properties of air to remove heat or provide cooling to occupants.
It also cools buildings by carrying heat out of the building as warmed air and
replacing it with cooler external air. This requires well-designed openings
(windows, doors and vents) and unrestricted breeze paths.

Cross ventilation - The strategy of cross ventilation relies on wind to pass

through the building for the purpose of cooling the occupants. Cross ventilation
requires openings on two sides of the space, called the inlet and outlet. The sizing
and placement of the ventilation inlets and outlets will determine the direction and
velocity of cross ventilation through the building. Generally, an equal (or greater)

area of outlet openings must also be provided to provide adequate cross

ventilation.

Stack ventilation This relies on the buoyancy of warm air to rise and exit
through openings located at ceiling height. Cooler outside area replaces the rising
warm air through carefully designed inlets placed near the floor.
Solar chimneys enhance stack ventilation by providing additional height and welldesigned air passages that increase the air pressure differential. Warmed by solar
radiation, chimneys heat the rising air and increase the difference in temperature
between incoming and out-flowing air.

Solar chimneys enhance ventilation

Night flush cooling The building structure acts as a sink through the day and
absorbs internal heat gains and solar radiation. Heat can be dissipated from the
structure by convective heat loss by allowing cooler air to pass through the
building at night. The flow of outdoor air can be induced naturally or
mechanically. The next day, the building will perform as a heat sink, maintaining
indoor temperatures below the outdoor temperature. This strategy is most
effective in climates with a large diurnal swing.

3. Radiative cooling
At night, the long-wave radiation from the clear sky is less than the long-wave infrared
radiation emitted from a building, thus there is a net flow to the sky. Since the roof
provides the greatest surface visible to the night sky, designing the roof to act as a radiator
is an effective strategy. There are two types of radiative cooling strategies that utilize the
roof surface: direct and indirect.
4. Evaporative cooling
In this methods, water evaporates by drawing large amounts of heat from surrounding
air. This works best when relative humidity is lower (70% or less during hottest periods)
as the air has a greater capacity to take up water vapour. The effectiveness of evaporative
cooling is largely dependent on the humidity of the outside air; dryer air produces more
cooling.

Pools, ponds and water features immediately outside windows or in courtyards can precool air entering the house. The surface area of water exposed to moving air is also
important. Fountains, mist sprays and waterfalls can increase evaporation rates.

2. Active cooling systems.

In active air conditioning systems, the systems are designed to work by using mechanical
power.
1. Central/Split HVAC systems
The system extracts heat from indoor air and transfers it outside, leaving cooled
indoor air to be recirculated through the ducts by a fan.
2. Ventilation
a) Whole House Fan
For relatively dry climates with cool nights, whole house fans are very effective
in reducing or eliminating the need for refrigerated AC. These are designed to
operate in the early morning and after sundown.

b) Ceiling fans
Its the blowing air moving across the body that makes the occupant feels cooler.
3. Evaporative cooling
An evaporative cooler produces effective cooling by combining water
evaporation with a simple, reliable air-moving system. Fresh outside air is pulled
through moist pads where it is cooled by evaporation and circulated through a
house or building by a large blower. As this happens, the temperature of the
outside air can be lowered as much as 30 degrees.
4. Hydronic Cooling
In hydronic cooling, cool water is circulated through tubes to each room or zone.
Tubes can be embedded in concrete floors (or ceilings in commercial buildings),
attached to aluminum panels or attached to fin-tube convectors.
5. Night Radiation Cooling of Water Flowing Over Roof
The system works by spraying water from a water tank over the roof at night
where it cools by radiation and evaporation. The water is then collected via a
gutter system and returned the tank. The next day, the cooled water is used for
cooling the home's living space.
6. Roof Sprinkler Cooling System
Roof sprinkler system lower roof temperature and provide cooling by spraying
water on the roof surface. The water evaporates and cools the surface.
7. Night Breeze Cooling System
It eliminates or reduces the need for refrigerated air conditioning by using cool
night air to pre-cool the house for the next hot day.
8. Mist Cooling
This is the atomization of water droplets to a size that can evaporate quickly. This
is achieved by forcing water through a specially designed mist nozzle at a pressure
that can create a fog of ultra-fine water droplets (as little as 5 microns). These tiny
water droplets quickly absorb the energy (heat) present in the environment and
evaporate, becoming water vapor (gas). The energy (heat) used to change the
water to a gas is eliminated from the environment, hence the air is cooled.
9. Night Air Thermal Mass Cooling Using Water Barrels
The idea is to cool the barrels down during the night hours, and then use the stored
"coolth" in the barrels for space cooling during the daytime. This requires a
climate in which the night temperatures drop down to low levels even though the
daytime highs are uncomfortably warm