On November 15^th, 2023, IEA EBC Annex 80 scientists, designers as well as representatives from the building cooling and ventilation associated industry gathered for the 8^th meeting of the Advisory Board of Practitioners (ABoP). This board, an initiative of Annex 80, AIVC and venticool, was founded to put results of scientific research into action by establishing strong ties to practitioners and to include their practical experience and feedback in future research projects.

12 participants attended the meeting which focused on the “Outcomes & learnings of Annex 80”. There were 2 presentations by experts foreseen for this meeting. The first introductory presentation by Patryk Czarnecki (IBR&I, AT) focused on the upcoming publication of the soon to be released Technology Profiles Report of resilient cooling technologies. Haley Gilbert (LBNL, USA) then provided a review of resilient cooling policy recommendations.

In between the 2 presentations, the participants were asked to fill in an online poll with the aim of comparing the results to a similar questionnaire distributed to the ABoP participants when the ABoP was firstly launched in 2021. The survey conducted in March 2021 was filled in by 28 people while the number of people participating in the survey of 2023 was limited to 7 for the first four questions and 6 for the remaining two. The survey questions and possible answers are listed below.

1. In the context of resilient cooling strategies which aspects would you consider most important (multiple answers):

• Heat island effect
• Increase of global temperature (as part of global warming)
• More extreme heat waves (as part of global warming)
• More extreme wind conditions (as part of global warming)
• Risks of power outage
• Change of occupancy or usage of building
• Other

2. Which of the technologies reducing heat loads to people and indoor environments do you consider as part of resilient cooling strategy? (multiple answers)
   • Advanced solar shading/glazing
   • Advanced cool materials
   • Advanced glazing technologies
   • Ventilated façades
   • Green roofs, green facades, ventilated roofs and facades
   • Thermal mass

3. Which of the technologies removing heat from indoor environments (production, emission and combined) do you consider as part of resilient cooling strategy? (multiple answers)
   • Ventilative cooling
   • Adiabatic cooling
   • Compression refrigeration
   • Absorption refrigeration
   • Ground source cooling
   • Evaporative cooling
   • Sky radiative cooling
   • High temperature cooling

4. Which of the technologies improving personal comfort apart from space cooling do you consider as part of resilient cooling strategy? (multiple answers)
   • Comfort ventilation and elevated air movement
   • Micro-cooling and personal comfort control
   • Removing latent heat from indoor environments by desiccant humidification

5. What are in your opinion the bottlenecks and barriers for implementing resilient cooling strategies?
   • Standards are not appropriate
   • Regulations and requirements are not appropriate
   • Guaranteed performance cannot be met under all circumstances
   • Lack of good examples
   • Too big effort to design and implement in comparison with classical HVAC systems
   • Too big liability in case of failure or complaints
   • Other
6. Do you expect an increased use of resilient cooling strategies in your field of activities?
   • No
   • Little increase
   • Rather substantial increase
   • Significant increase
   • No opinion

 

In an effort to identify potential trends or changes over time in the responses of the participants, we conducted a comparison of the results which follows below. However, it is crucial to acknowledge the limitations associated with the varying sample sizes, and any observed differences should be interpreted with caution.

Overall, in terms of shocks, it appears that more extreme heat waves remain the most important aspect in the context of resilient cooling strategies. However, the risk for power outage and the change of occupancy or usage of building, were considered more important and of no importance respectively, compared to the 2021 results. This is in line with the shocks identified by Annex 80: heat waves and power outages.

Concerning technologies reducing heat loads to people and indoor environments, advanced solar glazing continues to be key aspect of a resilient cooling strategy. Thermal mass appears to weigh much less while advanced cool materials have gained importance compared to 2021.

Regarding the technologies removing heat from indoor environments (production, emission and combined), ventilative cooling retains its position as the top-ranked technology within resilient cooling strategies.

Turning to technologies improving personal comfort apart from space cooling, more people seem to believe in micro-cooling and personal comfort control when compared to the findings of 2021. At the same time, comfort ventilation and elevated air movement continue to be recognised as resilient cooling.

Shifting the focus to barriers and bottlenecks for implementing the above-mentioned resilient cooling strategies, the findings of the 2023 survey highlights regulations and requirements as the most important challenge followed by the significant effort to design and implement in comparison with classical HVAC systems; the lack of good examples appear to be of limited importance. In 2021 the order was however somewhat different. Guaranteed performance was considered pivotal and held the top rank followed by concerns about regulations and requirements.

Concerning the last question: “Do you expect an increased use of resilient cooling strategies in your field of activities?”, the 2023 survey results present a balanced distribution of responses, but all agree on an increase. It is noteworthy to mention that in the 2021 survey, respondents expressed expectations for a more substantial increase in the adoption of resilient cooling strategies.

The next meeting of the Advisory Board of Practitioners will be held on March 12, 2024, focusing on the environmental impact of ventilative cooling/ventilation. If you are interested to join the board, please contact Maria Kapsalaki at: maria.kapsalaki@inive.org.