The passively cooled KfW building in Germany - Monitoring results

Air-conditioning and cooling contribute significantly to the energy consumption of a lot of existing office buildings, especially when primary energy factors are taken into account. "Lean" building concepts however can diminish the cooling energy demand by passive cooling strategies. Compared to mechanically cooled or air-conditioned buildings the resulting indoor temperatures are floating in a broader band during summer and might exceed the given boundaries of codes and regulations on thermal comfort for short periods. This paper presents the results of a passively cooled bank building in Germany and shows that even during the very hot summer of 2003, the indoor climate could be held in an acceptable range by only passive means if the rooms were operated properly.