Annex 62
About
Main goal
The main goal was to make ventilative cooling an attractive and energy efficient cooling solution to avoid overheating of both new and renovated buildings. Ventilation is already present in buildings through mechanical and/or natural systems and it can remove excess heat gains as well as increase air velocities and thereby also widen the thermal comfort range.
Main targets
The results from the Annex will facilitate better possibilities for prediction and estimation of heat removal and overheating risk – for both design purposes and for energy performance calculation. The documented performance of ventilative cooling systems through analysis of case studies will promote the use of this technology in future high performance and conventional buildings.
To fulfil the main goal, the Annex had the following targets for the research and development work:
- To develop and evaluate suitable design methods and tools for prediction of cooling need, ventilative cooling performance and risk of overheating in buildings.
- To develop guidelines for an energy-efficient reduction of the risk of overheating by ventilative cooling solutions and for design and operation of ventilative cooling in both residential and commercial buildings.
- To develop guidelines for integration of ventilative cooling in energy performance calculation methods and regulations including specification and verification of key performance indicators.
- To develop instructions for improvement of the ventilative cooling capacity of existing systems and for development of new ventilative cooling solutions including their control strategies.
- To demonstrate the performance of ventilative cooling solutions through analysis and evaluation of well-documented case studies.
Work programme
The Annex 62 research work was divided in three subtasks.
- Subtask A “Methods and Tools” analysed, developed and evaluated suitable design methods and tools for prediction of cooling need, ventilative cooling performance and risk of overheating in buildings. The subtask also gave guidelines for integration of ventilative cooling in energy performance calculation methods and regulation including specification and verification of key performance indicators.
- Subtask B “Solutions” investigated the cooling performance of existing mechanical, natural and hybrid ventilation systems and technologies and typical comfort control solutions as a starting point for extending the boundaries for their use. Based upon these investigations the subtask also developed recommendations for new kinds of flexible and reliable ventilative cooling solutions that create comfort under a wide range of climatic conditions.
- Subtask C “Case studies” demonstrated the performance of ventilative cooling through analysis and evaluation of well-documented case studies.