Controlling naturally ventilated double-skin façade to reduce energy consumption in buildings

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Naturally ventilated double-skin façade is the biggest heat and mass transfer interface between indoor and outdoor environments, identified as one of the weakest energy components in buildings. As controlling naturally ventilated double-skin façades is significant to improve its energy performance, a critical review was then undertaken on this, including passive (e.g., materials), manual (e.g., blinds), active (e.g., air-conditioner), non-automatic hybrid (e.g., passive-active systems), and automatic (e.g., automatic-windows) control systems. Based on the reviewed studies, the annual energy-saving performance of those control systems was obtained and analyzed. The energy-saving performance in descending order is the hybrid, passive, automatic, active, and manual control system, achieving an average annual energy saving of 47.9 %, 36.7 %, 32.1 %, 32 %, and 27.3 %, respectively; while their estimated initial costs in descending order is the automatic, hybrid, active, manual, and passive control system, respectively. Based on their energy-saving performances and initial costs, hybrid control systems can be adopted under those scenarios with high energy-saving requirements, passive control systems are a good balance of energy-saving performance and initial costs, and automatic control systems apply to those scenarios with highly required thermal comfort under obviously changing local weather. An optimal control system achieving the most average annual energy-saving varies in different climate zones. In tropical climate zones, the optimal control system is the passive control system; in subtropical and temperate climate zones, the optimal system is the hybrid control system. This review serves a vital guide on selecting and optimizing DSF controlling systems in buildings under various climate zones.