This paper introduces designs, technologies, and best practices aimed at reducing the cooling energy demand in buildings. It covers the basic principles of why occupants need cooling to meet thermal comfort requirements and how heat is transferred into buildings from the outdoor environment....

Recent studies suggest a core-periphery pattern of energy poverty in the European Union. The energy vulnerability of Romania, Bulgaria, and the economies of the Visegrad Group as peripheral countries is frequently attributed to the legacy of the centrally planned economy and post-communist...

Traditional dynamic shading systems are usually driven by electricity for continuously controlling the angle of blind slats to minimize the indoor solar heat gain over times. This paper proposed a novel design of buoyancy driven dynamic shading system, using only minimum amount of electricity....

An environmental chamber has been used to compare the effectiveness of mixing and displacement ventilation in terms of heat and contaminant removal. Results are presented for CFD simulations of the air movement in the chamber and for measurements using a heated mannequin with displacement...

A CFD software called VORTEX is used as a tool to simulate air flow and thermal comfort in naturally wind ventilated classrooms of an educational institution, which are at different locations, have different configurations and slightly differing outdoor environmental conditions. Simulations of...

The application of passive cooling techniques to buildings in warm climates creates the need for appropriate comfort criteria. Conventional comfort criteria, usually based upon laboratory experiments, seem to be unnecessarily severe. The paper describes preliminary findings of the PASCOOL...

A numerical simulation model is developed to study the thermal performance of an outdoor test-room with one Transparently Insulated (TI) wall. The thermal behavior of the room is examined under different control strategies for the shading device. Simulation results indicate significant energy...

External noise is often given as a reason for air-conditioning buildings. This paper describes some pilot studies that examined climatic variation in noise tolerance and the interaction with the thermal environment. Through further studies it is hoped to establish criteria to judge the...

A computer-aided design system for determining thermal comfort design strategies is presented. The system is based on a knowledge base which stores the existing information concerning thermal comfort rules of thumb, and precise procedural calculations which facilitates the defining of thermal...