Norms to establish the most elementary environmental control system which ensures summer thermal comfort in office buildings

Abstract

Various types of environmental control systems (ECS) such as natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation, evaporative cooling and full air-conditioning can be used to cool buildings in hot climates. It is not always clear which of these would be the most elementary ECS that would still ensure thermal comfort in a thermally efficient building for a specific climate. No method to establish norms describing a minimum acceptable ECS was found. This paper proposes a method and gives the norms for South African buildings. The norms are based on existing thermally efficient reference buildings. The minimum ECS to provide comfort in the reference building for a specific summer climate is established by means of a novel and easy to use thermal simulation procedure. The designer must then ensure thermal comfort in new designs by utilizing this minimum ECS. Although only norms for buildings in South Africa are given the method can easily be applied to other climates. The method is very comprehensive but requires only a few hours to apply. Savings in building capital and running costs should more than compensate for the extra effort spent on the design.