We are happy to share with you information on a topical session dedicated to ventilative cooling namely “Importance of good resilient building design and standards to ensure good ventilative cooling performance to reduce overheating and environmental impact”,  set to take place at the upcoming venticool- AIVC – TightVent joint conference in October 2023. We hope to see you there.

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Ventilative cooling (VC) is widely used as a key element when designing buildings to cope with overheating, but it can also improve the IAQ due to higher ventilation rates in the cooling season.

VC technologies have the potential to be an effective measure to reduce buildings energy consumption, by meeting some or all of the cooling requirement of a building without the need for an active cooling system (e.g. mechanical cooling). The design of a VC system plays a significant role in the success and here standards/guidelines are becoming more important to enhance a proper design. A responsive design not only includes good thermal comfort, but also resiliency and an ability to cope with the environmental impact of a certain technical solution.

The purpose of this session is to discuss and showcase how ventilative cooling can be part of the following three key elements, in which the building sector are facing:

• Resilience:
  • Robustness and resilience are key indicators when designing future buildings in terms of ventilative cooling.
• Indoor climate:
  • The focus on the indoor climate including limiting overheating is a main point due to rapid changes in the outdoor environment, fx. climate change.
• Environmental impact:
  • Sustainability will be, and is already, a key parameter when assessing technologies in the built environment.

 

All three above mentioned key elements are to some extent bound to standards and legislation. Hence, standards and legislation are essential to push new requirements, while setting the bar for future building design.

The objective of the session is to give the participants an insight into how “Ventilative cooling” fits into the three key elements:

• How to ensure a good building design through resilience indicators and environmental impact:
  • Get an insight into new research projects dealing with resilience indicators, as a parameter, for selecting the right solution.
  • What are the right indicators and how these can be used in the design?
  • How can environmental impact be used to assess a solution.
• Case studies:
  • Different case studies will be shown as a catalyst to give examples of how VC is used in the design phase to ensure either good thermal comfort, low environmental impact and/or resiliency.
• Standards and legislation:
  • Get an overview of new legislation in the field of overheating mitigation.
  • How to ensure the best design of VC and what and how to include this in the different building design stages (e.g. in the early conceptual design phase).

A further objective is to enable the participants to take away key recommendations on the correct understanding of how VC is to be viewed and implemented in future buildings.

Finally, to highlight that VC is a good alternative, instead of using mechanical cooling in buildings.

Session programme

Introduction to Topical Session

• Introduction: Christoffer Plesner, VELUX A/S, Denmark & Jannick Roth, WindowMaster International A/S, Denmark

How to ensure a good building design through resilience and environmental impact:

• Update on Resilient cooling and indicators from the IEA EBC Annex 80 [Peter Holzer, Operating Agent IEA EBC Annex 80, Institute of Building Research & Innovation. Austria]
• Resilient Ventilative cooling in Design Practice: Where next? [Paul O’Sullivan, Munster University, Ireland]

Case studies ensuring proper design:

• Life cycle assessment: A design element for ventilation system selection [Jannick Roth, WindowMaster International A/S, Denmark]
• Lessons Learned from Irish Schools: Early-stage Insights on Overheating [Paul O’Sullivan, Munster university, Ireland]
• Resilient cooling in office buildings: case study in Belgium [Hilde Breesch, KU Leuven, Belgium]

Standards and legislation:

• Design procedures for ventilative cooling integrated in new standards [Christoffer Plesner, VELUX A/S, Denmark & Jannick Roth, WindowMaster International A/S, Denmark]

Closing:

• Questions and open Discussion [Facilitated by Christoffer Plesner, VELUX A/S, Denmark & Jannick Roth, WindowMaster International A/S, Denmark]