Passive Cooling System to Provide Thermal Comfort

Abstract

Abstract: In a country like India, where temperatures may reach 40 degrees Celsius, everyone wants relief from the sweltering heat, but only a few can afford it. As a result, passive cooling is a low or no energy approach that relies on heat gain management and heat dispersion to offer thermal comfort. Heat Protection, Heat Modulation, and Heat Dissipation are the three basic types of passive cooling systems. The combined effect of approaches from each category on a prototype room is examined in this research, which includes shading and green roofs for heat protection, thermal mass (PCM) for heat modulation, and cross ventilation for heat dissipation. Thermal mass is a term that describes a substance's ability to store heat. The three primary phases of a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system are thermal charging, thermal storage, and thermal discharging. Phase Change Materials or PCM are latent heat storage materials. The roof is one of the most exposed parts of a house to the sun, accounting for over half of the heat gain in a single-story home. As a result, heat protection might be a viable option for lowering heat gain via the roof. A green roof, or a roof with vegetation, is one such system that operates on the principle of evapotranspiration, which is the combined action of soil evaporation and plant transpiration. Another effective method of heat shielding that is used in everyday life is shading. Shading is a basic technique for blocking sunlight before it enters a structure by using structural components such as overhangs, light shelves, horizontal louvres, or blind systems. Cross ventilation is a natural cooling method that uses wind to force cold air into a structure through an opening while driving warm air out. Natural ventilation of this sort is low-cost and ensures that a structure is suitably cooled. There are many such different passive cooling techniques used in different regions of the world in the form of individual as well as hybrid system. This project focuses mainly on Hybrid Systems. Thus, the objective of this project is to integrate PCM and other secondary passive cooling techniques for creating a hybrid passive cooling system to provide thermal comfort.