A method to assess the suitability of a climate for natural ventilation of commercial buildings

Increasingly, European building designers have used natural ventilation to control air quality and cool commercial buildings to conserve energy compared to mechanical cooling and fan operation. These advanced natural and hybrid ventilation systems may be adapted to the North American context, but work is needed including consideration of the broader diversity of climates. An approach to the analysis of climate suitability is presented and applied to a number of North American climates. The climate suitability method presented offers an approach to predesign analysis for ventilative cooling that is climate specific and accounts for the expected level of internal and solar gains for a building. The climate suitability analysis also yields estimates of ventilation rates that are likely to be needed to achieve either a direct ventilative or night cooling design strategy.