Passive cooling techniques can be used to reduce mechanical air conditioning requirements where cooling is needed. These include natural ventilation using openings to admit cool night air, buoyancy ventilation using temperature differences to induce airflow, and underground earth tubes to draw cool buried air into homes. Evaporative cooling methods like cool towers can also enhance passive cooling by using water evaporation to absorb heat from incoming air.
Passive cooling techniques can be used to reduce mechanical air conditioning requirements where cooling is needed. These include natural ventilation using openings to admit cool night air, buoyancy ventilation using temperature differences to induce airflow, and underground earth tubes to draw cool buried air into homes. Evaporative cooling methods like cool towers can also enhance passive cooling by using water evaporation to absorb heat from incoming air.
Passive cooling techniques can be used to reduce mechanical air conditioning requirements where cooling is needed. These include natural ventilation using openings to admit cool night air, buoyancy ventilation using temperature differences to induce airflow, and underground earth tubes to draw cool buried air into homes. Evaporative cooling methods like cool towers can also enhance passive cooling by using water evaporation to absorb heat from incoming air.
reduce or eliminate mechanical air conditioning requirements in areas where cooling is a dominant problem. By Convective method. Natural ventilation: By providing appropriate openings in suitable locations. The oldest straight forward method admits cool night air to drive out the warm air. 2.Buoyancy ventilation: It is more commonly referred to as temperature induced or stack ventilation. Cool air is heavier than warm air at the same humidity. Thus air flow is generated by dropping of the heavier air, forcing the lighter air to exhaust. Proper position of openings. Another convective cooling strategy is the drawing of outdoor air through tubes buried in the ground and dumped into the house. Made of material that allows easy thermal transfer, these tubes are buried several feet deep to avoid the warmer daytime surface temperatures. Warm outdoor air entering the tube gives up its heat to the cooler earth, and cools substantially before entering the house. Thermal saturation of the surrounding earth must be addressed, by means of surface landscaping and watering, thereby removing the gained thermal energy from the tube/earth transfers. Though condensation is rarely a problem in dry climates, such tubes should be sloped slightly and have adequate drainage to insure that water build-up doesn't block the passage of air. The intake end should be screened and placed in a shady spot away from foot traffic. When properly built and sized, these underground tubes can supply cool air during the peak load daytime even in the hottest climates.
By using under ground buried air tubes. Shady devices: A horizontal over hang or an awning above a south window is an inexpensive effective solution. Wing Walls.
Wing walls are vertical solid panels placed alongside of windows perpendicular to the wall on the windward side of the house. Figure 4 Top View of Wing Walls Airflow Pattern Wing walls will accelerate the natural wind speed due to pressure differences created by the wing wall. Top View of Wing Walls Airflow Pattern; Thermal Chimney:
A thermal chimney employs convective currents to draw air out of a building. By creating a warm or hot zone with an exterior exhaust outlet, air can be drawn into the house ventilating the structure. Sunrooms can be designed to perform this function. The excessive heat generated in a south facing sunroom during the summer can be vented at the top. With the connecting lower vents to the living space open along with windows on the north side, air is drawn through the living space to be exhausted through the sunroom upper vents. (The upper vents from the sunroom to the living space and any side operable windows must be closed and the thermal mass wall in the sunroom must be shaded.) A trellis with deciduous vines can be used. Another good strategy is the use of deciduous trees that shade the south face and roof during the summer. All these shading methods work equally well with Trombe walls, water walls, greenhouses, and other south-wall passive solar collector strategies. EVAPORATIVE COOLING METHODS When water evaporates it absorbs a large amount of heat from its surroundings. Evaporative methods can be used to enhance the cooling rates in convective cooling systems. Using earth tubes and by using cooling towers. A cool tower requires no blower fans to move the cool air. The only power required is for a small 12 volt DC pump to circulate water over the cooler pads. Basic cool tower design: Cool towers use gravity to move cool air without any fans. Generally cool towers are 6x6 to 10x10, 20 to 30 tall for a building with one or 2 storey. These cool towers will cool 1000 to 2500 sq.ft. Air flow for these cool towers will range from 2500 to 8000 CFM.
Basic cool tower design: Common cool tower design: Advanced cool tower design: Common cool tower design. Consists of wet pads in tower. Water must flow down pads air must pass through them in order to have evaporation needed to cool the air. As wind blows through the wet pads, water absorbs heat from air, and evaporates. Thus making the air cool. Vents must have a larger openinh than those used with a forced air system because there is no pressurized fan blower in this system.This tower is 6x6x30in dimensions. Advanced cool tower design. To create a large air flow down the cool tower, there will be one large swivel scoop above the pads in the tower.The scoops should have a venturi system to keep the scoop oriented into the wind.Instead of one large opening ,install smaller openings in the roof with down wind swivel scoops to remove the heat. With this system the wind can blow from any direction and cool tower will continue to function.This is a more efficient design than using a solar chimney.
The intake air scoop should be made o/o aluminium or designed with an aluminium frame with canvas stretched over it.The canvas scoop is recommended because it is lighter and generates no noise.
In this design the pads are just below the scoop inside the tower with ducting to direct the air flow into and through the pads.This reduces the size area of the cooler pads, thus reducing the cost.The design requires about 20 sqft of 4 thk pads.Cooler pads that are inside the tower and below the scoop are protected from the direct sunlight.The tower size is 6 square 30 high. The air scoop occupies the top 4. Two pads of 3 square 4 thk located just below the air scoop.