Abstract
Passive cooling and heating methods within buildings are studied a lot nowadays. Nevertheless, their performance considering their driving has not been deeply studied. Therefore, the performance of the most common passive heating and cooling methods is analyzed in this document. The methods are divided into three categories: operable, semi-operable, and not operable. They are studied under different conditions of operation in order to estimate their performance in terms of indoor temperature increase/decrease in a single dwelling. The study is carried out with the thermal simulation program EnergyPlus, using a dwelling in Mexico City as a case study, which is validated with literature that studied passive methods for similar climates. Furthermore, for an integrated driving, four features of operation of the passive methods are considered: mobility, maintenance, assembly, and consumables. The results show that a correct use of these features of driving might achieve a significant temperature drop in the case of cooling and a significant indoor temperature increase in the case of heating. This is reflected in a considerable amount of energy saving compared to a conventional heating/cooling heat-pump system running under regular conditions, which is taken as a reference of consumption. Thereby, it is concluded that the proper usage, considered here as the correct application of the four features of operation mainly by the occupants, might have a high influence in their performance of increase/decrease of the indoor temperature. Thus, it is highly recommended to follow up their performance once installed and not to suppose an optimal performance ever after.
Highlights
The current situation in the world obligates new and innovative manners of providing the everyday growing energy necessary to keep the levels of production and way-of-life of humans.it is well-known that global warming, closely related to energy activities, is a threat that has to be addressed immediately by the current and the future generations [1,2].One of the manners of countering climate change is related to the efficient use of energy
An approach to assess the effectiveness of the current passive heating and cooling methods is developed in terms of the indoor temperature increase and decrease, respectively
Based upon the indoor air temperature, and with thermal simulations that calculate the indoor temperature increase/decrease, it is found that, if the methods do not have any driving by the users, the energy consumption could be almost the same as the consumption of a regular dwelling that uses a heat pump to heat and cool the space
Summary
The current situation in the world obligates new and innovative manners of providing the everyday growing energy necessary to keep the levels of production and way-of-life of humans It is well-known that global warming, closely related to energy activities, is a threat that has to be addressed immediately by the current and the future generations [1,2]. One of the manners of countering climate change is related to the efficient use of energy In this context, the building sector is a key target due to its share of the world’s energy use (40%) [3]. The building sector is a key target due to its share of the world’s energy use (40%) [3] Out of this consumption, one of the most consuming activities within the buildings is the space conditioning, either for cooling or for heating [4]. Sometimes these methods are not capable of reaching the same temperature drop, in the case of Buildings 2019, 9, 224; doi:10.3390/buildings9110224 www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings
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