Air conditioning in buildings - two words of caution.

Two specific areas are addressed: (1) The necessity for effective estimates of infiltration rates in buildings; and (2) The dependence of vapor compression air conditioning systems on refrigerant charge. It is shown that the estimate of air infiltration rates through simple tests such as "blower-tests" are not applicable. In addition, there may be measurable drops in the capacity of air conditioning systems (on the order of up to 10%) for noni significant variations in the refrigerant charge from the optimum value.

Coupling and solving thermal and air flow phenomena in passively cooled buildings.

PASSPORT Plus is a new building thermal simulation tool, developed in the framework of PASCOOL. It incorporates new findings from the experimental and theoretical research activities performed in PASCOOL that have been integrated in an original informatic structure. Overall, the emphasis during the development of the program was given on dealing with problem related to cooling of buildings, especially by natural and passive techniques.

Analysis and prediction techniques.

            

Comfort and passive cooling

This paper is concerned with aspects of thermal comfort which are particularly relevant to passive cooling. A fundamental difference between cooling in a warm climate and heating in a cool climate is recognised due to the relationship between the physiological neutral temperature and ambient heat sinks. The need for a comfort performance assessment of a building design is established. The notion of person cooling as distinct from space cooling justifies the need for a behavioural comfort model as distinct from a fixed state model.

Natural ventilation systems and components.

             

Flow element models.

           

Natural ventilation research activities undertaken in the framework of PASCOOL.

Europe. Numerous studies have been devoted to the analysis of the physical phenomena related to natural ventilation. These phenomena are very complex and our degree of understanding them often leaves a lot to be desired. Research on this topic within the framework of PASCOOL included experimental and modeling work aiming to fill existing gaps in our knowledge of indoor air conditions in naturally ventilated buildings.

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