ASIEPI Information Paper P193

Experience on Passive Cooling Techniques for Buildings

This paper presents relevant experiences on passive cooling techniques (night ventilation, ground cooling, evaporative cooling, cool roofs, green roofs), showing their potential in mitigating the cooling energy consumption and in improving thermal comfort conditions in noncooled buildings.

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ASIEPI Information Paper P186

Innovative solar control devices

Buildings are the EU's largest energy users, consuming over 40 % of Europe's total primary energy. One way of cutting this consumption is by avoiding or reducing cooling energy through proper solar shading. This paper presents examples of innovative solar control devices and emphasizes their relevance for the energy performance of buildings.

Solar shading controls the amount of heat and light admitted to a building.By doing so, solar shading devices contribute to saving energy in various areas. They can reduce the need for heating or air conditioning by maintaining a more even temperature despite varying climatic conditions. They can also cut the amount of energy required for lighting, by admitting more light during overcast conditions for example. Besides the thermal and energy aspects, solar shading leads to better visual comfort. Glare reduction will improve working conditions in offices, reduce sick leave, increase productivity and contribute to health and safety at work. Solar control devices are also necessary on the North facade on certain buildings in order to prevent glare problems.

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ASIEPI Information Paper P185

French handling of alternative cooling techniques: free cooling and ground heat exchanger

There are a lot of alternative cooling techniques that improve substantially the summer comfort without (or in a very limited manner) increasing the energy consumption. For example solar and thermal control techniques, heat amortization and heat dissipation techniques. Most used techniques in France are free cooling in office buildings and ground heat exchanger in dwellings. This ASIEPI Information Paper focuses on providing general information describing the implementation of EN 15241 and EN 15242 into French regulation to evaluate passive cooling based on ventilation. It contains an explanation of the calculation method with detailed information on input and output data.

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ASIEPI Information Paper P163

Summer comfort and cooling: calculation methods and requirements

Summer comfort and the energy consumption for cooling are a growing point of attention, not only in Mediterranean climates, but also in the more moderate summer climates of Central and Northern Europe. This ASIEPI Information Paper summarizes the results of a survey of a dozen European countries with respect to the handling of these aspects in the national/regional EPB-regulations.

Until recently, the focus of many EPB-regulations and much standardisation work has more strongly been on the energy consumption for space heating. However, in recent years growing attention is being given to the aspect of summer comfort (if possible without active cooling) or to the energy consumption caused by cooling. Nevertheless, it is clear that, generally speaking, the methods for summer comfort and cooling are not yet as advanced as the methods for space heating, where several decades of operational experience have led to proven and mature calculation methodologies and requirements. ASIEPI has made an inventory of the state of the following aspects in the EPB-regulations of several European countries:
- the way in which the energy consumption for cooling is calculated
- the way in which summer comfort is evaluated, if at all
- any explicit requirements that are imposed with respect to summer comfort and/or cooling

The main findings are summarized in this paper.

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Last update : 11-02-2010.