Analysis of natural ventilation effect for an office building considering moisture absorption by materials

Abstract

Natural ventilation of buildings is becoming one of the major design approaches for sustainable buildings all over the world. In humid weather natural ventilation accelerates the absorption of water vapor by books, papers, and materials used for furniture and furnishing. This effect may increase the airconditioning load when ventilation is performed intermittently in an airconditioned building. Therefore, it is important to determine ventilation control strategies on how and when vents or windows should be open and closed. This chapter proposes a simulation code that can calculate airconditioning load and room conditions by taking both natural ventilation, and moisture flow analysis into account. The chapter finally investigates how much the vent schedules and quantities of moisture absorbing materials affects airconditioning loads and room thermal conditions. The results show that the natural ventilation controlled by temperature plus humidity ratio during nighttime is best. Airconditioning load is reduced by 37% in comparison to that for the no ventilation scenario.