Influence of the Airflow in a Solar Passive Building on the Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Comfort Levels

Eusébio Conceição,Hazim Awbi,João Gomes

doi:10.3390/atmos10120766

Eusébio Conceição, Hazim Awbi + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10120766

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Abstract

The influence of the airflow in a solar passive building on the indoor air quality and thermal comfort levels was investigated. The numerical study for a university library was conducted using a software that simulates the building thermal behavior with complex topology, in transient conditions, for evaluating the indoor air quality and occupants’ thermal comfort levels for typical summer and winter days. Solar radiation was used as a renewable energy source to increase simultaneously the thermal comfort and air quality levels and reduce building energy consumption. Regarding the solar passive building, consideration was given to all of the building structure envelope, shading devices and interior details, while in the solar active building active ventilation was used. To analyze the airflow that simultaneously provides the best indoor air quality and thermal comfort levels, a new integral methodology based on the minimization of the total number of uncomfortable hours was used. The results show that it was possible to determine an air change rate that ensures a good compromise between thermal comfort and indoor air quality. An optimal air change rate of two and three renewals per hour had been determined, respectively, for winter and summer conditions.

Highlights

Today, climate change is considered one of the biggest challenges humanity is facing
Considering a methodology similar to that presented for long-term thermal comfort, this paper proposes a new methodology to consider that the number of uncomfortable hours due to indoor air quality can be defined by the following equation: Air Quality Uncomfortable Hours (AQUH) =
Equation (4) shows that the total number of uncomfortable hours is obtained using the sum of the warm uncomfortable hours (WUH), the cold uncomfortable hours (CUH) and the uncomfortable hours due to indoor air quality (AQUH) for each air change rate, considered between 0.5 to 8 per hour

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is considered one of the biggest challenges humanity is facing. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased leading to global warming and, the last 17 years have seen the highest temperatures [1]. The International Energy Agency reports that energy production and consumption contribute to most of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide (CO2 ), which is considered to be the leading cause of global warming [2]. The building sector accounts for approximately 40% of global energy consumption [3], and 30% of CO2 emissions [4]. It is recognized that the building sector has great potential to reduce its energy consumption by implementing measures to improve its energy efficiency [5,6]

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