In the temperate climate, the consistency of bioclimatic designs for heating and cooling is essential. However, the traditional Japanese houses which have excellent cooling techniques often disclose their poor thermal performance in the winter time. Since Jong it has been said that they sacrificed the heating performance in return for the cooling performance, as a result of their choice in the time when the consistency was technically impossible.
Hampshire County Council has a deservedly high reputation for imaginative, low energy educational buildings. In 1995, County Architect Sir Colin Stansfield-Smith worked his magic for Portsmouth University. Has the mixed mode solution for the Portland Building done the trick?
The BRE has tested different methods for heating low energy houses. Did a warm air system with mechanical ventilation and heat recovery beat the more conventional wet radiators and electric panels?
The role of metallic surfaces is not only to save energy in winter and in summer by separating the inside and the outside. New and inexpensive ways of collecting solar energy for internal heating, new ways of ventilating, heating and cooling through the fabric elements are described. Two very significant prospects are : radiative cooling by metallic surfaces and enhancement of indirect daylighting by optimised ceilings. The subject of the European CURES program is to promote these new technologies by simulating and testing them.
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