Low energy cooling strategies

Environmental concerns such as ozone depletion and global warming are forcing the building design profession to explore new ways of space conditioning. This paper looks at a number of potential low energy cooling strategies, and using dynamic analysis techniques makes an assessment of the ability of such strategies to contribute to the cooling of buildings in the UK climate. The use of low energy cooling techniques will require a re-evaluation of the acceptable limits for thermal comfort, and so  the analysis is presented in the form of frequency distributions at which certain levels of internal temperatures are exceeded. The results indicate that at low levels of internal gains, a number of passive/hybrid technologies are able to provide appropriate levels of cooling, eliminating the need for mechanical refrigeration. At higher levels of gain, these systems can make a significant contribution in offsetting the capacity and energy consumption.