Evaluation of passive cooling in low energy police office

Natural night ventilation is driven by wind and stack generated pressures and cools down the exposed building structure at night, in which the heat of the previous day is accumulated. This passive cooling technique is applied in the low energy police office Schoten (Belgium). Thermal summer comfort in the offices is analysed based on the adaptive temperature limits indicator. Design, operation and performance of natural night ventilation are also evaluated. The design is compared to design guidelines for natural night ventilation. The operation is evaluated by comparing measured opening/closing of the windows to the designed control system. The performance is analysed based on the achieved temperature drop overnight. Measured data of indoor temperatures and opening/closing of windows were collected from the building management system during short periods in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Good thermal summer comfort is noticed during normal and warm summer periods. Only when the maximum outdoor temperature exceeds 30°C, high indoor temperatures are measured. Too low temperatures in the morning are noticed in some landscaped offices in normal summer periods. This can be solved by raising the set point for indoor temperature. The users have a large impact on the achieved thermal comfort by manual opening and closing of the windows by day. A rather good agreement is found between measured and designed operation of natural ventilation. Daytime activation requirements have to be checked. The temperature drop overnight varies between 0.3°C and 2.9°C.

ISBN:9782874632761

Jaar van publicatie:2011