Energy Efficient Office Buildings with Passive Cooling Results from a Research and Demonstration Programme

To gain access to information on energy use in office buildings, the German Federal Ministry forEconomy launched an intensive research and demonstration programme in 1995. In advance of theEU energy performance directive a limited primary energy coefficient of about 100 kWh m-2a-1 as agoal for the complete building services technology was postulated (HVAC + lighting) for alldemonstration buildings. A further condition was that active cooling be avoided. Techniques such asnatural or mechanical night ventilation or heat removal by slab cooling with vertical ground pipes aswell as earth-to-air heat exchangers in the ventilation system were applied. An accompanyingresearch was established to keep track of the results and the lessons learned from about 22demonstration buildings realized and monitored until the end of 2005. As one outcome this papersummarizes the energy performance of a selection of characteristic buildings together with examplesof the summer thermal comfort situations achieved.