Ventilation: The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Ventilation
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2 Historical Approaches to Ventilation ............................................................................................ 3 Selecting the Ventilation Strategy ................................................................................................. 5 General Principles ......................................................................................................................... 8 Natural Ventilation: Details ...................................................................................................... 9 Mechanical Systems with Heat Recovery (MVHR): Details ................................................. 12 Earth Tubes ............................................................................................................................. 15

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Introduction
Ventilation is required for several reasons: 1. To provide oxygen to enable the occupants to breathe; 2. To remove waste carbon dioxide from the occupants; 3. To remove other trace gases and particulates from the outgasing of surface coverings (for example carpets), or processes; 4. To keep odours within reasonable bounds; 5. To provide cooling; 6. To allow a psychological connection between the indoor and outdoor realm. For every design the importance of each these needs to be assessed and any complicating factors, such as the potential for noise ingress from adjacent roads considered. Reason 1, the need for oxygen, requires relatively little fresh air: approximately 0.03 litres of air per second per person (l/s/p). For 1 person in a house of volume 500 m3, this equates to 0.0002 air changes per hour (ach/hr). This is very little air and is more than likely to be provided by ingress around doors and windows. The other reasons given above typically imply much higher rates: the removal of carbon dioxide requires around 3 to 5 litres per second per person and summertime cooling possibly 20 litres per second per person (l/s/p) (depending on room size and design). In general it is meeting the need for cooling that is the most difficult. Equations 1 and 2 shows the relationship between air changes per hour and litres per second; Table 1 gives explicit values for three room sizes. (The constants used in Equation 1 and 2 arise from there being 3600 seconds in an hour and 1000 litres in a cubic metre.) Some of the values given in Table 1 imply very high velocities if the air enters through small openings, or large (or numerous) openings. For example a classroom of 30 occupants being cooled by 20 l/s/p of outside air provided by a 1 metre wide window open to 100 mm, implies an air velocity of 13.5 miles per hour (or force 4 on the Beaufort scale). This is easily fast enough to cause annoyance or to move paperwork.

Q(ach / hr ) =

q(l / s).3600 V (m3 ).1000

Equation 1

q (l / s) =

Q( ach / hr ).V ( m3 ).1000 3600

Equation 2

Table 1 . Relationship between air changes per hour and litres per second. This table should be used to convert between requirements set in different units, or to get an idea of the quantity of air required. ach/hr l/s l/s 10 m3 100 m3 1000 m3 ac/hr 10 m3 100 m3 1000 m3 1 0.36 0.036 0.0036 0.1 0.278 2.78 27.8 3 1.08 0.108 0.0108 1 2.78 27.8 278 8 2.88 0.288 0.0288 2 5.56 55.6 556 15 5.4 0.54 0.054 4 11.1 111 1110 20 7.2 0.72 0.072 8 22.2 222 2220 30 10.8 1.08 0.108 16 44.4 444 4440

In winter, ventilation can also be a source of heat loss. gives the heat loss from a ventilation rate q (litres per second), given the specific heat capacity (spht, 1000 J.kg-1.K-1) and density (1.1 kg/m3) of air, for each 1 degree centigrade difference been the internal and external air, i.e. the loss in watts is the same as the ventilation rate in litres per second (per degree centigrade):

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

loss ( watts ) =

spht. air .q (l / s) q(l / s) 1000

Equation 3

For a building of 500 occupants being ventilated at 5 litres per second per person and a temperature difference of 20C, Equation 3 gives a loss of 2500 watts per degree centigrade, or 50 kW in total. Depending on the external climate and the hours of operation, this could imply over 70,000 kWh over the heating season, or 3,600 worth of natural gas just to keep the concentration of carbon dioxide within the building within acceptable limits. It is illustrative to compare this with the fabric losses from such a building. If the mean U-value of the fabric is 0.3 and the surface area 3000 m2, the loss will be 18 kW, i.e. the ventilation loss exceeds the fabric loss during occupation. This is a little appreciated result and implies that as much care should be given to the design of the ventilation system and air-tightness as given to minimising fabric losses. It also suggests that if the heat from ventilation air leaving the building could be captured and passed to the incoming air it would be more than enough to heat the building during occupancy. Given a mechanical ventilation system, this is relatively easy to do and is one of core technologies behind the Passivhaus approach.

Historical Approaches to Ventilation


The Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio (approx 80-15 BC) said towns should be located without marshes in the neighbourhood, for when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy.. During the Industrial Revolution, most physicians believed polluted external air was responsible for various chronic conditions. By 1866, technology had progressed such that B.F. Sturtevant Co. was equipping the U.S. with ventilating fans. In 1884, Dr. John S. Billings, U.S. deputy surgeon general, published The Principles of Ventilation and Heating and Their Practical Application1 a comprehensive text on standards and specifications. Vitruvius was also the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture,2 Vitruvius is famous for asserting in De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas that is, it must be solid, useful, beautiful. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the elements. Our material pallet is now far wider, but an equally great change has arisen because of access to cheap energy such we need no imitate nature but rely on mechanical systems to cool and heat our shelters and ignore the elements. Buildings such as Frank Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim museum (19431959) (Figure 1) were design to completely isolate the occupant from the external environment by the use full mechanical ventilation. Such an approach to ventilation is relatively modern and there are plentiful examples of naturally ventilated buildings of all scales and in all climates that work well. Figure 3 and Figure 4 show two examples, one old, one new, of the use of natural ventilation in extreme climates. Given the success of these, it is sensible to conclude that for most climates it should be possible to design a naturally ventilated solution. However the need to minimise heat losses as we move toward zero-carbon design may paradoxically move us away from a natural solution in many climates and towards a mechanical solution in winter and a natural one in summer.

Billings, J.S. (1889). The principles of ventilation and heating and their practical application (2nd ed.). New York: The Sanitary Engineer.
Vitruvius, Pollio (transl. Morris Hicky Morgan, 1960), The Ten Books on Architecture. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20645-9.

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Figure 1. Guggenheim museum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Guggenheim_museum_exterior.jpg

Figure 2 . Zion National Park Visitors Centre. This uses downdraft cooling towers (shown) with evaporative (water) at the top, and exhaust through high clerestory windows.

Figure 3. Mansion in Jaisalmer, India. The image clearly shows the open nature of the facade needed to give the large ventilation needed to cool the high mass architecture through the use of night time cooling. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jaisalmer-4.jpg

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Figure 4. Photo of visitor centre at Zion National Park showing downdraft cooling tower with evaporative media at the top, and exhaust through high clerestory windows. (Courtesy of Robb Williamson)

Natural ventilation in many climates may not move interior conditions into the comfort zone 100% of the time. There is therefore the need to make sure the building occupants understand that some of the time thermal comfort may not be achieved. There is also a need to consider the form of the building at an early stage. A naturally ventilated structure is often of articulated plan with large window and door openings, while an artificially conditioned building might well be more compact in plan with sealed windows.

Selecting the Ventilation Strategy


Table 2 lists the issues influencing the choice of ventilation strategy for a low-energy building and Table 3 gives suggested ventilation rates for differing environments (these should be checked against current national regulations before commencing detailed design work). Table 2 and Table 3 provide a first step to what will need to be considered but should only been send as a starting point, not for setting out the only possibility: for example double opening windows with much higher and lower than typical openings may well be able to provide adequate ventilation to a much greater room depth (work by the UK Building Research Establishment indicates that .)
Table 2. Issues influencing the choice of ventilation strategy (adapted from CIBSE-B p2-6) Issue Comments Location Large adjacent buildings can adversely affect wind patterns and imply greater opening areas are required. The proximity of external sources of pollution can influence the feasibility of natural ventilation. The proximity of external sources of noise can impact on the feasibility of natural ventilation. Pollution Local levels of air pollution may limit the opportunity for natural ventilation. It may not be possible to provide air inlets at positions suitable for natural ventilation given the inability to filter the incoming air successfully. Orientation Buildings with their main facades facing north and south are much easier to protect from excessive solar gain in summer as the north side will be in shade and shading can easily be provided on the southside, as the sun will be high during the hottest part of the day. Form At building depths greater than 15 m the ventilation strategy becomes more complex; the limit for daylighting and single sided natural ventilation is often taken as 6 m. (But is probably higher.) Adequate floor to ceiling heights are required for displacement ventilation and buoyancy driven natural ventilation; a minimum floor to ceiling height of 2.7 m is recommended. Infiltration Ventilation strategies and the whole low-energy approach, whether natural or mechanically driven, depend on the building fabric being appropriately airtight. Shading The appropriate use of external planting or other features can reduce solar gain.

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Window choice

Glazing

Thermal mass

These need to be external, not internal and it is important to consider making the windows smaller rather than relying on shading as this will also reduce heat losses. Openable areas must be controllable in both summer and winter, e.g. large openings for still summer days and trickle ventilation for the winter time. Window shape can affect ventilation performance: Single sided ventilation provided by top or bottom hung windows is rarely effective except in domestic situations where gains and occupancy levels are low. In high gain situations, maximise the height difference between the top and bottom of the window, or better have a high and a low opening (if at all possible use double sided ventilation).Windows need to be easy to use remember large triple glazed units are heavy and can be difficult to open if sited too high. Total solar heat transmission through window glazing can vary over a six fold range, depending on the combination of glass and shading mechanisms selected. Figure 5 shows the relative effectiveness of eight glazing and shading systems. Thermal mass is used to reduce peak cooling demands and stabilise internal air temperatures. In winter it can be used to store excess heat for the next day however for this to be effective in energy terms insulation and infiltration levels need to be improved to ensure the heat is retained. Table 3. Summary of recommendations (adapted from CIBSE-B, p2-13)

Building sector Assembly halls Music studios Call centres Catering (inc. commercial kitchens) Communal residential buildings Computer rooms

Recommendation (ac/hr, unless otherwise stated) 3-4 air changes per hour (but pay particular attention for the potential to overheat). 610 (but heat gain should be assessed) 46 (but heat gain should be assessed) 3040 0.51 Positively pressurised to 1 ac/hr to prevent local build-up of heat and contamination for external air. However unless active cooling is used much higher rates are typical. As for typical naturally ventilated buildings 0.51 highly dependent on use

Court rooms Dwellings Factories and warehouses High-rise (non-domestic) buildings 46 ACH for office areas; up to 10 ACH for meeting spaces Hospitals and health care buildings

Hotels Industrial ventilation Laboratories Museums, libraries and art galleries Offices Schools and educational buildings

6-10 toilets and bathrooms, 10 (minimum) isolation rooms, 15 recovery rooms, 6 (minimum) treatment rooms. There are usually filtration requirements for hospitals and hence most of these will be supplied via a mechanical systems. 1015 minimum for guest rooms with en-suite bathrooms Sufficient to minimise airborne contamination 6-15, likely to be mechanical (allowance must be made for fume cupboards) Depends on nature of exhibits 1.8 l/s/p if seated quietly; 5.6 l/s/p if light work teaching areas: 3 l/s/p minimum

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Shops and retail premises Sports centre halls Swimming pools Toilets

Transportation buildings (inc. car parks)

58 l/s/p 8-12 l/s/p 4-6 or 8-10 if extensive water features Regulations usually apply; opening windows of area 1/20th. of floor area or mechanical ventilation at 6 litres/s per WC or 3 minimum for non-domestic buildings; opening windows of area 1/20th. of floor area (1/30th. in Scotland) or mechanical extract at 6 litres/s (3 ACH in Scotland) minimum for dwellings 6 for car parks (normal operation) 10 (fire conditions)

.
Figure 5. Summary of recommendations (adapted from CIBSE-B p2-13)

The key decision to be made is whether the building will use natural or mechanical ventilation, as this will define much of the energy philosophy and layout of the building. Table 1 shows the advantages and disadvantages to each. In summer ventilation is likely to be provided by openable windows much of the time as this reduces the electrical demand from fans, so it is unlikely that a mechanically ventilated building will be able to do without opening windows. In situations such as sites exposed to high levels of external noise opening windows may not be possible. This suggests either using mechanical ventilation all year, which implies much larger systems to give the substantial ventilation rates needed in summer for cooling, or relying on acoustically damped passive vents. The later should be viewed with caution. There is not the same pressure on occupants to close these when not required as they do not present a security issue, it can be difficult to see if they have been left open, any motor driven unit may fail open or the control system may become incorrectly programmed, and there is little evidence on whether they will be airtight for the whole life of the building. It is worth remembering that mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) is becoming increasing common within continental Europe and is well worth considering even for domestic properties, however they is the need to ensure the occupants will be able to successfully operate such a system and maintain it. It is critical if the building is to be a low energy one that air conditioning is avoided at all cost. In the UKs climate for example, the need for air conditioning does not arise from high external temperatures usually, but from too high solar, electrical or metabolic gains. Little can be done to tackle the latter, but the others are amenable to adaptionas are expectations and clothing levels. The engineering out of air conditioning is a particularly good use of a thermal model. There is the need to identify early in the design process how much of any overheating is due to these, and how much it could be reduced by reducing the solar gains or reducing the electrical

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

load. The thermal model should be run with a series of values for these gains and the results presented to the whole design team. Imagination and a joined up design team are needed here. For example, could the IT equipment be spread throughout the building therefore reducing the need for a cooled server room, or could more heat-tolerant processors be considered? Could recessed light fittings be replaced by simple more efficient batten ones, or the artificial lighting load be reduced by adapting the relevant lighting codes to the aims and objectives of the clientnamely a low carbon building. Could higher thermal mass and passive night time cooling of the building be used rather than active cooling? Such multidisciplinary thinking is unlike to occur unless the whole design team is involved from the start. Except in very rare situations, the use of active cooling should be considered a failure of architecture and of the design team in general, as it will either greatly increase the carbon footprint of the building in use, or require far larger renewable electricity generation from the sitethe cost of which is likely to be considerable.
Table 4. Advantages and disadvantages of mechanical and natural ventilation. Mechanical with heat recovery Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages Easy to operate Hard to use night time Much more energy Higher maintenance cooling efficient in winter. cost. Reduce size of plant Ingress of external noise Easy to use for night Higher electrical load room. in some environments time cooling (because of fans) User control Can not recover heat Predicable performance: Larger plant room from ventilated air. will still work in summer if needed Low maintenance costs Risk of draughts Better control of Need to leave room for (unless automatic external noise ductwork openers used) No fan energy Difficult to achieve Ability to deal with Potential for noise and night time cooling highly polluted higher room-to-room without the use of environments sound transmission louvered systems and these may prove to no be airtight, or be left open in winter. A greater physical and Ventilation rate is likely Risk of draughts with psychological to be at its lowest in some systems, although connection to the summer, just when it these should be easy to outdoor realm. need to be at its greatest engineer out Can not deal with User control: normally highly polluted little and adds cost environments Potential for fan noise as moving elements age. Again, good engineering can reduce this Natural

General Principles
There are four possible combinations of natural and mechanical systems: 1. Natural supply and extract. Essentially openable windows, but possibly with the use of louvres. Heat recovery is not possible, so all energy in the ventilation air will be lost. However no energy is needed to provide the ventilation air. 2.Natural inlet, mechanical outlet. Typically fans in roof areas to extract air provided by opening windows and louvres. The fans cause a negative pressure in the building which sucks air in through the windows and other openings. Although a heat recovery unit could be used to

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

recover the energy in the outgoing air, there is no ductwork to reinject it back into the building. If ductwork is created to allow for this, it would seem most sensible to use this to provide the incoming air in the first placewhich is option 4, below. 3. Mechanical inlet, natural outlet. Air is blown into the building using fans and is allowed to exit from windows and other openings. No opportunity to recover energy from exhaust air. 4.Mecanical inlet and outlet. Supply and extract fans inject and remove air from the building. Easy to include heat recovery and hence the method adopted by Passivhaus. In summer opening windows can be used to remove the energy requirement of the fans. Easily to include night time cooling without compromising surety.

Natural Ventilation: Details


Natural ventilation can be defined as ventilation that occurs due to air moving through the building under the forces of buoyancy and wind. Natural ventilation can be used in most building types, however care will be need if the building is great than 15m in depth [A2-8]. If gains are greater than 40 W/m2 CIBSE Guide-A (p2-8) concludes that some form of mechanical ventilation maybe required [A2-8,ref27]. However, a classroom of 70 m2 with 30 occupants implies a metabolic gain of 43 W/m2, in addition there might be a lighting gain of 10 W/m2 and a few computers, yet most classrooms in the UK, USA and Europe do not rely on mechanical ventilation. This is a typical example of conservatism within the building services industry and a point where clients and architects need to question all assumptions and preferably do their own back-of-the-envelope calculations. Table 5 and Table 6 show standard recommendations for options for various room sizes and levels of gains. These should be seen only as a starting point as experience has shown that good architecture and engineering will be able to provide a successful naturally ventilated solution for larger room and great gains.
Table 5. Natural ventilation options and their effective depth (adapted from CIBSE-B, p2-9) Strategy Effective depth relative to room height Single sided, single opening 2 x floor-to-ceiling height Single sided, double opening 2.5 x floor-to-ceiling height Cross flow 5 x floor-to-ceiling height Stack ventilation 5 x floor-to-ceiling height Atria 10 x floor-to-ceiling if centrally located Table 6. Relationship between design features and heat gains (adapted from CIBSE-B, p2-9) Design features Total heat gains* (Wm2) floor area 10 20 30 40 Minimum room height (m) 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 Controllable Essential Essential Essential Essential window opening (to 10 mm) Trickle vents for Essential Essential Essential Essential winter Control of indoor May be required May be required Essential Essential air quality Design for May be required Essential Essential Essential daylight to reduce gains Daylight control May be required May be required Essential Essential of electric lighting 100% shading May be required Essential Essential Essential from direct sun

Ventilation

The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Cooling by Essential Essential daytime ventilation only Cooling by day Not necessary May be required and night ventilation Exposed thermal Not necessary Not necessary mass * i.e. people + lights + office equipment + solar gain

Problem

Problem

Essential

Essential

Essential

Essential

The following schematics show the six most common ways natural ventilation can be used in a building. The equations associated with each of these might seem slightly complex for early stage design work as several of the parameter they contain might well not be known, for example the separation between the top and bottom of the windows. However the key is to realise in each case what the sensitivities are and how the ventilation rate can be improved in each case of by changing the strategy, e.g. from single to double sided. In a naturally ventilated building, the flow of air will arise either from the difference in air pressure on across the building due to wind, or from the lower density of warm over cold air. The latter will cause the warm air to rise and exit through the top of windows or the windows or other openings at high level. In general wind driven cross ventilation is far more effective than single sided ventilation that relies on buoyancy. Because buoyancy drive ventilation relies on there being a substantial difference between the internal and external air temperature it is particularly ineffective in summer as the outside air may well be of a similar temperature as the inside. Hence although such a strategy is likely to provide enough ventilation to keep carbon dioxide concentrations at reasonable levels, it is unlikely to be able to help cool the building. (Note: because the internal/external temperature is lower in summer the mass of fresh air needed to remove each unit of heat from the building is also larger.) The effectiveness of each of the solutions is examined in Error! Reference source not found. for various conditions. In all cases the effective area of a number of opening across which the same pressure difference is appliede.g. single sided ventilation with two low level inlets and two high level outlets, or wind driven double side ventilationcan be obtained by simple addition. When buoyancy and wind effects are possible, then it is likely the situation will be dominated by whichever gives the greatest flow rate using the equations given.
Strategy: wind driven single sided, openings all at same height Sensitivity Flow rate is proportional to the opening area. So doubling the area of opening will double the flow. Flow is also proportional to the wind speed. Insensitive to internal/external temperature difference. At low wind speeds little flow will occur and Buoyancy driven flow will dominate.

Ventilation

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Strategy: buoyancy driven single sided, openings all at same height

Sensitivities Flow rate proportional to the square root of the height between the mid points of the top and bottom window. Also proportional to the root of the temperature difference. Proportional to root of the opening area.

Single sided, openings all at same height, buoyancy driven Note ha is the distance between the top and bottom of the opening.

Double sided, wind driven

Double sided, temperature driven Note Za is the distance between the midpoints of the two openings.

Double sided, wind and temperature driven

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Table 7. Relative effectiveness of natural ventilation strategies. Heat removed, watts (at a wind speed of 3 m/s (where relevant), an internal air temperature of 20C, for total area of openings of 1 m2, a height difference (where relevant of 2 m), and two external temperatures represent summer and winter conditions.

Heat removed (watts) Strategy Single sided Single sided Single sided Double sided Double sided Double sided No. of openings One One Two Two Two Two Method Wind Buoyancy Buoyancy Wind Buoyancy Both
External Temp = 5C External Temp = 18C

1395 3347 5664 3969 2003 3969

186 560 273 529 96 529

From Table 7 we can conclude that: None of the strategies provide much cooling in summerjust when it might be needed, and hence larger (or a great number of) openings might be needed if the gains are substantial (a classroom, for example, might have 3 kW of gains). A large single hole can provide a reasonable amount of air if it is 1m higha top hung window would not be this. In the single sided case, the air flow, and hence the cooling, is improved if the single 1m2 opening is replaced by two openings, each of area 0.5m2, separated vertically by 1m. The greatest flow rates and hence cooling will come from a double sided solution where there is a difference in height between the openings on either side of the space.

Mechanical Systems with Heat Recovery (MVHR): Details


Mechanical ventilation may be defined as the movement of air around a building under the assistance of fans. The incoming air is either: 1. via displacement (laminar flow), i.e. at low level and modest speeds and at a temperature close to the room temperature. Warm air is then extracted at a high level. Or 2. by mixing (turbulent flow) at higher speeds with complete mixing with the room air typically via ceiling supply. If the system is primarily design to supply winter air to ensure reasonable levels of air quality the system can be modest in scale. If in addition there is the need to provide cooling in summer than the much larger supply rates will imply a considerably larger system and corresponding energy costs. Hence the common approach in low energy buildings of using a small mechanical system with heat recovery in winter and providing the much larger quantities of air needed for cooling in winter using opening windows. Figure 1 shows an example MVHR system. The first thing to note is the complexity compared to a window. It is worth noting that the lifetime of parts with moving elements is likely to be far less than the lifetime of the building. Another common approach in buildings with extensive corridors is to supply the fresh air to the main rooms and extract it from the corridors with little return ductwork. This however requires a hole of some form between each room and the corridor, this can be a source of unwanted noise transmission.

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Figure 6. Basic domestic scale MVHR system.

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Figure 7. An MVHR unit being used to supply warm air in winter (top) and cool air in summer (bottom). http://www.sunwarm.com/MVHRbrochure.pdf

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The Design and Delivery of Low Carbon Buildings

Figure 8. Section through a domestic scale MVHR. http://www.sunwarm.com/MVHRbrochure.pdf

Earth Tubes
One further approach to the provision of fresh air to a building, and that can be used with either a mechanical or natural system, is the earth tube. The temperature of the ground a few metres below the surface is typically similar to the mean annual air temperature (approximately 12C in the UK, depending on location). This means that if the supply air is brought to the building via a long tube buried in the ground its will adjust is temperature closer to the ground temperature. Thus in winter cold air will be slightly warmed and in summer hot incoming air will be slightly cooled. Thus free heat of cooling is provided. The approach has been used in the UK, but is far more popular in locations where there is a much greater swing in annual temperature, for example Sweden and the USA. Figure 9 illustrates the basic principle. It is worth noting that is possible to model the effectiveness of the approach in standard thermal models such as IES.

Figure 9. Installation of an earth tube system in Wisconsin, USA. The inlet is the upright pipe just in front of the earth mover, the building is on the left. http://www.zigersnead.com/current/blog/post/earth-tubes/04-06-2008/1045/

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