Research Report S.
1 total work
v. 11/96
Night cooling is an established technique using ventilation which takes place at night to remove heat gains that have built up during the preceding day. By permitting the cool night air to flow through a building, heat is removed and the building fabric, furniture and fittings are cooled, thus limiting the temperature increase during the following day. For the majority of buildings there is adequate cooling potential for approximately 90 per cent of the year without recourse to mechanical cooling. The source of cooling is the outside air which enters the building, either by opening windows and other vents or through the use of mechanical ventilation. It is during periods of peak outside air temperature that night cooling is particularly needed to help ameliorate the heat gains during the following day. To achieve the full benefit of night cooling it is essential that appropriate control strategies are used to optimize the amoung of cooling, so avoiding overcooling and the need for subsequent re-heating. This "Technical Appraisal" outlines research performed by BSRIA involving site monitoring of four night-cooling control strategies, in office buildings of "low-energy" design.
The performance of the control strategies was further verified through the use of thermal simulation sofware. This was used to model a basic representation of one of the case study buildings and to study the performance of a range of night-cooling control strategies.
The performance of the control strategies was further verified through the use of thermal simulation sofware. This was used to model a basic representation of one of the case study buildings and to study the performance of a range of night-cooling control strategies.