Using air flow and comfort analysis to avoid air conditioning in Spain.

New office buildings in Spain are nearly always designed to be air conditioned. The architect Emilio Miguel Mitre Associates (EMMA) has designed a building which avoids air conditioning, thereby reducing energy demand. The design uses the principles of high thermal mass combined with night ventilation, reduction of solar gain during the summer months, high levels of insulation, evaporative cooling, and buried pipes to provide cooling when the external temperature rises above 30°C. ECO Energy and Environment were commissioned to investigate the effects of these measures on the predicted internal temperatures and energy consumption using the computer simulation package, TAS. The analysis showed the internal temperatures will be acceptable when external temperatures are below 30°C. When temperatures rise above 30°C the cooling effect of the air which has passed through the buried pipes will be effective in keeping the internal temperatures below 30°C. It was also demonstrated that the predicted energy consumption of the building will be less than one quarter of its air conditioned equivalent.