SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

Fundamentals of Climate Responsive Buildings - II

DR AVLOKITA AGRAWAL
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING

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Climate Consultant Software -
Passive Design Strategies
Advanced Passive Design Strategies
 Types of Advanced Passive Design Strategies
• Thermal Insulation
• Thermal Mass
• Cool-roofs
• Courtyard Effect
• Wind Tower
• Evaporative Cooling
• Passive Down-Draught Cooling
• Roof-Sprays
• Earth Air-Tunnels

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 Thermal Insulation
• A process to help achieve thermal comfort for the occupants by reducing unwanted heat loss or gain,
decreasing energy demand of heating & cooling systems.
• Most building insulation materials like glass-wool, cellulose, polystyrene foam use the principle of trapping
air into small cells that cannot transfer heat effectively by natural convection.
• An insulated building is energy efficient, provides more uniform temperatures throughout the space, has
minimal recurring expense for maintenance.

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 Thermal Mass
• Thermal mass is the capacity of a material to
absorb, store & release the sun’s energy.
• The material’s density and levels of conductivity
help to keep the temperature of a building stable.
• They can store and release the sun’s heat energy.
Examples of materials include brick, stone,
concrete, water.
• Thermal mass can be used for its heating capacity
to absorb heat from sunlight and release the
energy throughout the evening or night.
• Thermal mass can be used for its capacity to keep
a structure cool during the hotter summer months

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 Cool Roofs
• A technique that uses highly reflective and emissive materials for roofing that can remain approximately 28-
33*C cooler than traditional materials during peak summer weather
• Cool roofing materials have high albedo as well a proportionate thermal emittance to maintain surface
temperatures and heat transfer.
• A cool roof transfers less heat to the interiors of the building, keeping the building cooler and comfortable and
uses less energy for cooling, which can contribute to reduction in emissions of pollutants.

Cool roof products can be

indistinguishable from their conventional
counterparts. The rightmost row of curved
tiles uses conventional colored pigments,
whereas the other two rows use cool
pigments.
The easiest way to make a cool roof
Can be by adding light-colored(cool)
pigments to the material during
manufacture .

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 Cool Roofs

On a hot, sunny, summer day, a black roof that reflects 5 percent of the sun’s energy and emits more than 90
percent of the heat it absorbs can reach 180°F (82°C). A metal roof will reflect the majority of the sun’s energy
while releasing about a fourth of the heat that it absorbs and can warm to 160°F (71°C). A cool roof will reflect
and emit the majority of the sun’s energy and reach a peak temperature of 120°F (49°C).

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 Courtyard Effect
 Due to incident solar radiation in a courtyard, the air gets warmer and rises.
 Cool air from the ground level flows through the louvered openings of rooms surrounding a courtyard,
thus producing air flow.
 At night, the warm roof surfaces get cooled by convection and radiation.
 If this heat exchange reduces roof surface temperature to wet bulb temperature of air, condensation
of atmospheric moisture occurs on the roof and the gain due to condensation limits further cooling.

Courtyard as a moderator of internal climate

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 Wind Towers
 In a wind tower, the hot air enters the tower
through the openings in the tower, gets cooled,
and thus becomes heavier and sinks down. The
inlet and outlet of rooms induce cool air
movement.
 In the presence of wind, air is cooled more
effectively and flows faster down the tower and
into the living area. After a whole day of air
exchanges, the tower becomes warm in the
evenings.
 During the night, cooler ambient air comes in
contact with the bottom of the tower through
the rooms.

Wind tower in Jodhpur Hostel to catch

favorable cool wind from south-west for
passive cooling

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 Evaporative Cooling
 Evaporative cooling lowers indoor air temperature by evaporating water. It is effective in hot and dry
climate where the atmospheric humidity is low.
 In evaporative cooling, the sensible heat of air is used to evaporate water, thereby cooling the air, which,
in turn, cools the living space of the building.
 Increase in contact between water and air increases the rate of evaporation.
 The presence of a water body such as a pond, lake, and sea near the building or a fountain in a courtyard
can provide a cooling effect

WALMI Bhopal
Section showing implementation
of evaporative cooling

1. Ground cover
2. Water sprinkler
3. Insulated roof
4. Shading trees
5. Water trough

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 Passive Down-Draught Cooling
 In this system, wind catchers guide outside air
over water-filled pots, inducing evaporation and
causing a significant drop in temperature before
the air enters the interior.
 Such wind catchers become primary elements
of the architectural form also.
 Passive downdraught evaporative cooling is
particularly effective in hot and dry climates.

Passive down-draught cooling has been used to effectively cool the Torrent Research Centre in Ahmedabad.

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Roof Sprays

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 Earth Air-Tunnels

 Daily and annual temperature fluctuations decrease

with the increase in depth below the ground surface.
 At a depth of about 4 m below ground, the
temperature inside the earth remains nearly constant
round the year and is nearly equal to the annual
average temperature of the place.
 A tunnel in the form of a pipe or otherwise embedded
at a depth of about 4 m below the ground will acquire
the same temperature as the surrounding earth at its
surface.
 Therefore, the ambient air ventilated through this tunnel
will get cooled in summer and warmed in winter and
this air can be used for cooling in summer and heating
in winter.

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 Earth Air-Tunnels
 This technique has been used in the composite climate
of Gurgaon in the TERI RETREAT building.
 The living quarters (the south block of RETREAT) are
maintained at comfortable temperatures (approx. 20-
30 degree Celsius) round the year by the earth air
tunnel system, supplemented, whenever required, with
a system of absorption chillers powered by liquefied
natural gas during monsoons and with an air washer
during dry summer.
 However, the cooler air underground needs to be
circulated in the living space. Each room in the south
block has a 'solar chimney; warm air rises and escapes
through the chimney, which creates an air current for
the cooler air from the underground tunnels to replace
the warm air.
 Two blowers installed in the tunnels speed up the
process. The same mechanism supplies warm air from
the tunnel during winter.

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Thank you

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