Abstract
The introduction of cool outdoor air can help in reducing the energy consumption for cooling during summer. Ventilative cooling potentials (VCPs) have been defined in various ways in the literature to represent potential cooling hours in specified outdoor temperature ranges. However, the energy-saving potential of ventilative cooling can differ between buildings in the same climatic zone depending on the buildings’ thermal characteristics and system operations. In this study, new VCPs are introduced with an index of temperature shift based on adaptive thermal comfort. This index can be determined based on the balance temperature difference of the buildings, which is defined as the heat gain in the building divided by the thermal transmission and air exchange characteristics of the building envelope under quasi-steady state conditions. The proposed method was also compared with those reported in the literature, including a computer-based VCP tool. It is the objective of the present study to investigate the correlation between VCPs and actual energy savings via ventilative cooling. Simulations were conducted in an office building for a four-month period during summer to calculate the energy saved via ventilative cooling in comparison with that achieved with a mechanical cooling system. Eight cities representing four different climatic conditions were considered: tropical, dry, temperate, and continental. Our results revealed a strong correlation between the energy savings and the proposed VCPs in the case of a proper temperature shift estimation in all climatic zones. The computerized VCP tool also exhibited good correlation with the calculated energy savings and with the VCPs proposed herein.
Highlights
Research on exploiting the climatic cooling potential is progressively increasing toward achieving buildings with low energy consumption
This study investigates the correlation between various Ventilative cooling potentials (VCPs) models and actual energy savings
Because each city 1shows its own characteristics of VCP variations according temperature shifts are plotted in Figure 5, where ∆T is used as an index of temperature shift
Summary
Research on exploiting the climatic cooling potential is progressively increasing toward achieving buildings with low energy consumption. It is necessary to quantify the potential of ventilative cooling in a specific climate with a standard index. Several indices for quantifying the climatic cooling potential have been introduced in accordance with the energy saving [2,3]. Yao [4] assessed an index of the natural ventilation cooling potential (NVCP) for an office building—the ratio of the number of hours within the comfort zone to the total occupied hours. Ventilation type, and internal heat load must be defined in advance to match the natural ventilation with the expected occupancy thermal comfort. Without including the building model, Causone [5] proposed an index of the climatic potential for natural ventilation (CPNV).
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