Natural ventilation: Harnessing natural forces to create comfort conditions within buildings

Abstract

Natural ventilation and passive cooling is the harnessing of natural forces — heat generated buoyancy, wind pressures, thermal mass, phase change, adiabatic processes and so on, to provide comfort conditions within buildings without the use of mechanical processes, ie, from air conditioning systems, chillers or refrigeration processes. Although the principles of natural ventilation have been understood for many years and have become increasingly popular in recent times, there are many ways in which these systems may fail or not work to best advantage. This article sets out to explain some of the issues surrounding the use of natural ventilation and passive cooling.