PASSIVE DESIGN

 Passive design is design that does not require mechanical heating or

cooling.
 Buildings that are passively designed take advantage of natural

energy flows to maintain thermal comfort.

 When sunlight strikes a building, the building materials can reflect,

transmit, or absorb the solar radiation.

 Additionally, the heat produced by the sun causes air movement

that can be predictable in designed spaces.

 These basic responses to solar heat lead to passive design
Differentiating Passive vs. Active Design
Passive design
results when a
building is
created and
simply works
“on its own”.

Active design uses equipment to

modify the state of the building,
create energy and comfort; i.e..
Fans, pumps, etc.
Passive heating
 Two primary elements of passive solar heating are -

 South facing glass

 Thermal mass to absorb, store, and distribute heat

 There are three approaches to passive systems

direct gain,

indirect gain

(trombe wall)
isolated gain
Passive Cooling
 Passive solar cooling can reduce or even eliminate the need for

air conditioning in homes.

 Cross Ventilation

 Wing Walls

 Thermal Chimney

 Other Ventilation

Strategies
(a) Glazing
• South facing glazing is ideal for cool
temperate climates. It allows maximum
solar access in winter and can be easily
shaded in summer. In cool temperate
climates:
• Maximize South facing glazing with
solar exposure (especially in living
areas). Minimize east & west facing
glazing.
• Use adjustable shading.
• Use insulating glass and frames and/or
snug fitting insulating drapes with
sealed pelmets.
b)Trombe Wall
• A Trombe wall is a thermally massive wall with vents provided at the top and bottom.
It may be made of concrete, masonry, adobe, and is usually located on the southern
side (in the northern hemisphere) of a building in order to maximize solar gains.
• The outer surface of the wall is usually painted black for maximizing absorption and
the wall is directly placed behind glazing with an air gap in-between.
• Solar radiation is absorbed by the wall during the day and stored as sensible heat. The
air in the space between the glazing and the wall gets heated up and enters the living
spaces by convection through the vents.
• Cool air from the rooms replaces this air, thus setting up a convection current. The
vents are closed during night, and heat stored in the wall during the day heats up the
living space by conduction and radiation.
• Trombe walls have been extensively used in the cold regions of Leh.
• It is noteworthy that in buildings with thermal storage walls, indoor temperature can be
maintained at about 15 degree C when the outside temperature is as low as -11 oC.
• Generally, thickness of the storage wall is between 200 mm and 450 mm, the air gap
between the wall and glazing is 50-150mm, and the total area of each row of vent is
about 1% of the storage wall area.
• The trombe wall should be adequately shaded for reducing summer gains.
(c)Water Wall
• Water walls are based on the same principle as that for trombe walls, except that they
employ water as the thermal storage material.
• A water wall is a thermal storage wall made up of drums of water stacked up behind glazing.
It is usually painted black to increase heat absorption.
• It is more effective in reducing temperature swings, but the time lag is less.
•Heat transfer through water walls is much faster than that for trombe walls.
• Therefore, distribution of heat needs to be controlled if it is not immediately required for
heating the building. Buildings that work during
the daytime, such as schools and offices,
benefit from the rapid heat transfer in the
water wall.
• Overheating during summer
may be prevented by using suitable
shading devices.
Solar chimney
During hot seasons, a Trombe wall or sunspace with vents through it can be used as a 
thermosiphon.  If vents are placed at the top of the glazing, then air from the room will be
pulled out by convection in the air gap between glazing and mass wall.  This form of passive
ventilation is called a solar chimney.

A Trombe wall acting as a solar chimney

(d)Roof-Based Air Heating System
• In this technique, incident solar radiation is trapped by the roof and is used for heating
interior spaces.
• In the Northern Hemisphere, the system usually consists of an inclined south-facing glazing
and a north-sloping insulated surface on the roof. Between the roof and the insulation, an air
pocket is formed, which is heatedly solar radiation.
• A moveable insulation can be used to reduce heat loss through glazed panes during nights.
• There can be variations in the detailing of the roof air heating systems.
• In the Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank building, the south glazing is in the form of
solar collectors warming the air and a blower fan circulating the air to the interior spaces.
e)Sunspace
• A sun space or solarium is the combination of direct and indirect gain systems.
• The solar radiation heats up the sun space directly, which in turn heats up the living
space(separated from the sun space by a mass wall)by convection and conduction through
the mass wall. In the northern hemisphere, the basic requirements of buildings heated by
sunspace are :
(a) a glazed south facing collector space attached yet separated from the building
(b) Living space separated from the sun space by a thermal storage wall. Sunspaces may be
used as winter gardens adjacent to the living space..
Passive Cooling Techniques
Passive cooling is a building design approach that is used to control heat gain and promote
heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the thermal comfort with low or nil
energy consumption

Passive cooling works either by preventing

• heat from entering the interior (heat gain prevention)
• by removing heat from the building (natural cooling)

The general passive cooling techniques and the advanced passive cooling techniques
suitable for warm humid climate are in the ppt
GENERAL PASSIVE COOLING TECHNIQUES
The general passive cooling techniques have three levels of approaches during the building
construction.
• Site level building features,
• Architectural features and
• Weather skin features

A) SITE LEVEL BUILDING FEATURES

 Location
 Orientation
 Vegetation
 Land massing
 Microclimate modification

B) ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES C) WEATHER SKIN FEATURES

 Building exposure  Insulation
 Surface/volume ratio  Glazing
 Screen  Mass
 Shade  Material type
 Wing walls  Texture
 Overhangs  Finishes
ADVANCED PASSIVE COOLING TECHNIQUES
1. DESICCANT COOLING
2. EARTH COUPLING
• Direct Coupling
• Indirect Coupling
3. EVAPORTIVE COOLING
• Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling
• Roof Surface Evaporative Cooling
4. RADIATIVE COOLING
• Diode Roof
• Roof Pond
5. INSULATION
6. SHADING DEVICES
• Shading by Overhangs, Louvers, Awnings, etc.
• Shading of Roof
7. SHADING BY LANDSCAPE
8. SHADES BY TEXTURED AND REFLECTIVE SURFACE
9. INDUCED VENTILATION TECHNIQUES
• SOLAR CHIMNEY
• AIR VENTS
10.WIND TOWER
ADVANCED PASSIVE COOLING TECHNIQUES
1.0 DESICCANT COOLING

• It is effective in warm and humid climate.

• Desiccant salt or dehumidifiers are used to
reduce humidity in atmosphere.
• The outside air enters into the unit area
containing desiccant, which absorbs the
moisture and dries the air adiabatically.
• Solar energy is used to regenerate the desiccants
• System combines induced ventilation to bring
air from underground over an activated
charcoal desiccant and cool the interior with dry
air. As the air warms and exits high on the south
wall, it passes over the saturated desiccant Process of desiccant cooling
plate, spurring the evaporative process
• IT involves the use of a desiccant (drying agent). A number of chemicals, such as silica gel,
natural zeolite, activated alumina, and calcium chloride, will absorb large amounts of water vapor
from the air.
• two serious difficulties with the use of these materials.
• First, when water vapor is absorbed and turned into liquid water, heat is given off.
• The second problem with the use of a desiccant is that the material soon becomes saturated
with water and stops dehumidifying. The desiccant must then be regenerated by boiling off the
water.
 2.0 EARTH COUPLING
In earth coupling, the moderate and consistent temperature of soil acts as heat sink to cool the
building through conduction. This principle is most effective in hot climate and also when earth
temperature is cooler than ambient air temperature
2.1 Direct Coupling

• Earth acts as heat sink when the building

is in contact with it.
• When the ambient temperature goes
high, the earth has a capacity to retain
the coolness and acts as buffer by
Earth sheltered building
protecting the building.
• Worldwide earth sheltered buildings are
built to take the advantage of the
coolness and buffer provided by it. Thus
it reduces the heat gain by limiting solar
infiltration Earth sheltered home-The Meadow Dance, Hyderabad
2.1 Indirect Coupling

• The building is coupled with earth by means of

earth ducts.
• The buried tubes, as earth duct acts as a venue
for supply of air to travel below earth before
entering the building.
• The supplied air is cooled by surrounding soil.
Indirect earth coupling by earthen tubes
• Soil temperature should be lower than the
desired room air temperature for better cool
output temperature.
• If not, the tubes can be buried below water
before entering the building.
3.0 EVAPORTIVE COOLING
• In evaporative cooling, the outdoor air is
cooled by evaporative water before it is
introduced into the building
• For conditioning the indoor space through
evaporative cooling technique, water can
also be used as another resource apart from Courtyard effect and evaporative cooling

air.
• In the process of evaporative cooling,
ambient hot air is passed over water to
evaporate and cool the air. Thus cooled air is
passed inside the Interior to cool the space.
• There were 2 types of evaporative cooling,
1. Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling
(PDEC)
2. Roof Surface Evaporative Cooling
 3.1 Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling

In this system, the tower is with wetted cellulose pad at the top of the tower. The water
sprayed on the pad gets collected and re-circulated by a pump.

•In this system, wind catchers guide outside air over water-filled pots, inducing evaporation
and causing a significant drop in temperature before the air enters the interior.

•Passive downdraught evaporative cooling is particularly effective in hot and dry climates. It
has been used to effectively cool the Torrent Research Centre in Ahmedabad.

Model of cooling tower with cooling pad

3.2 Roof Surface Evaporative Cooling

Solar radiation incident on the roof results

in overheating of rooms below them. The
heat on roof surface can be reduced by
spraying water on water retentive material
and rooftop vegetation

Roof top sprinkler for evaporative cooling

ROOF SPRAYS
4.0 RADIATIVE COOLING
• The Roof top of building acts as both night radiator and also a heat or cold store. During
the night time, the heat is lost from roof by long wave radiation and by convection
• The roof can be insulated externally during the day time to minimize the heat gain by
solar radiation and outside hot air.
• At night the long-wave infrared radiation from a clear sky is much less than the long-
wave infrared radiation emitted from a building, and thus there is a net flow to the sky.
• Clouds, on the other hand, almost completely block the radiant cooling effect

4.1 Diode Roof

• The heat gain and water loss by evaporation can be reduced by diode as this roof
consists of pipe system.
• A heat-pipe system consisting of a pebble roof wetted with water and protected with
long, black polyethylene bags, which have upper outside faces painted with white TiO 2.
• The system is efficient, favouring heat losses during the night and refusing solar gains.
• The experiments have proved the possibility of passive cooling 7°C below the outside
maximum air temperature.
4.2 Roof Pond

• In roof pond system, the water body is located above the roof, which is protected and
controlled by exterior insulation.
• Water present in the roof pond is exposed to the solar radiations to absorb the heat and
store.
• The building interior remains cool as the heat is absorbed by roof pond.
• Operable screens can also be used to cover the pond during sunshine hours and open it
for nocturnal cooling in the night time.
• The ceiling of the building which has thermal storage will radiate uniform low temperature
heat in both sunny and cloudy conditions. The solar radiation which is captured by roof
pond can store temperature of up to 100˚C
 Roof pond cooling in summer

 Roof pond heating in winter

 Direct & indirect radiant cooling

On clear nights with little humidity, Humidity reduces radiant cooling, and
there is strong radiant cooling. clouds practically stop it.

Potentially the most efficient approach to radiant cooling is to make the roof itself
the radiator. For example, an exposed-concrete roof will rapidly lose heat by
radiating to the night sky. The next day, the cool mass of concrete can effectively
cool a building by acting as a heat sink.
At night, the movable insulation is in
During the day, the insulation is in the
the “open” position so that the
“closed” position to keep the heat out.
buildings’ heat can be radiated away.

The specialized radiator cools air, which then During the day, the radiator is vented
blown into the building to cool the mass. outdoors, while the building is sealed
5.0 INSULATION
Insulation is barrier to heat flow, reducing heat loss in winter and reduce heat gain in
summer. There are many types of insulation materials available according to the need. They
are,
• Foam
• Cellulose
• Fiberglass
• Polystyrene
6.0 SHADING DEVICES
• Heat generated by the direct sun as a single
bar radiate over each square meter of
surface, but 90% of heat can be located by
effective shading, which can reduce
summer temperature, improves comfort
and save energy
• Shading requirements vary according to
climate and orientation of buildings as
briefed below:

Types of shading devices protecting building exterior

• North direction: fixed or adjustable
horizontal shading above the window
and extending past it each side.
• East and West direction: fixed or
adjustable vertical louvers or blades,
Retractable
deep verandas or pergolas with ever Awnings

green trees.
• North east and North west: perforated
elements like pergola with deciduous
trees to allow solar radiations partially or
verandas and adjustable shading devices
Shade From Pergola
to avoid it fully. Louvers

• South east and South west: planting

evergreen trees in hot climate and
providing complete shade
6.1 Shading by Overhangs, Louvers, Awnings,
etc.

• Proper design of shading

devices like overhangs,
louvers, awnings, etc., will
reduce the heat gain into
the building and reduces the
cooling load.
• It also improves daylighting
inside the building.
• Depending on the
orientation and sun angle,
the effectiveness of the
shading device can be
Types of shading devices
improved
6.2 Shading of Roof

• Shading the roof is one of the

important factors to reduce heat gain
as around 40% of the heat entering
the building is through the roof.
• Roof shading can be done by plants,
canvas, earthen pots, removable
covers, wet gunny bags, etc.,

Methods of Roof Shading

 7.0 SHADING BY LANDSCAPE

• One of the most important

factors for energy
conservation in building is
done by landscaping .
• Landscaping can be used to
shade the building exterior,
which has the capacity to
reduce the indoor Shading of trees in summer and winter
temperature up to 2.5˚C
• Evergreen trees can be used
for shade in both summer and
sun in winter.
• The trees should be planted
based on the orientation.
Shading by trees based
on orientation
8.0 SHADES BY TEXTURED AND REFLECTIVE SURFACE

• High textured wall surface helps to reduce

heat gain. Color of building also helps to
reflect the solar radiation.
• Light color helps to reflect the sun
radiation

Shading in textured vertical surfaces

Pre-drilled boards
attached with
countersunk stainless
steel screws hang at
a 25-degree angle
from the vertical axis
clad the center’s
roughly 6,000 square
feet of façade.
Glulam Timber Fins Provide Texture and Shad(AUSTRALIA)
9.0 INDUCED VENTILATION TECHNIQUES (STACK EFECT)

• Induced ventilation is caused, when there is a pressure difference between the outside
air and air present inside the building.
• Hot air rises up due to lower pressure and pulls the fresh air from surrounding creating
buoyancy ventilation.
• This effect is also known as stack ventilation
• Stack ventilation is where air is driven through the building by vertical pressure
differences developed by thermal buoyancy.
• The warm air inside the building is less dense than cooler air outside, and thus will try
to escape from openings high up in the building envelope; cooler denser air will enter
openings lower down.
• The process will continue if the air entering the building is continuously heated, typically
by casual or solar gains.
 9.1 SOLAR CHIMNEY

• The most effective application of this

natural law (stack effect) is a "thermal
chimney," a solar-exposed enclosure tall
enough to generate maximum air flow
and massive enough to retain heat and
power the system into the evening
hours. Solar chimney principles
• A solar chimney works as natural draft
device that makes the solar radiation to
move air upward and convert the solar
energy into kinetic energy of air.
• By this method the hot air is moved out
quickly from the building interior.
 9.2 AIR VENTS

• Air vents are suitable for the hot

and dry climate, warm and humid
climate which helps to reduce the
dusty winds.
• In this type the apex of dome or
cylindrical roof has an opening
with protective cap at the top this
opening act as ventilator and
makes the collected hot air to
escape.
• This circulation is continuous and
makes the living space cool
 9.3 Cross-Ventilation
 Wind-induced ventilation uses pressures
generated on the building by the
wind, to drive air through openings in the building. It is most commonly realised as
cross-ventilation, where air enters on one side of the building, and leaves on the
opposite side, but can also drive single sided ventilation, and vertical ventilation flows.
10.0 WIND TOWER
• Wind catchers or wind towers are
installed at top of the building.
• It has different shape and heights.
• It is suitable for the hot and arid
climate region.
• The hot air collected in the top of
the tower becomes cooled and
sinks down into the interior . Ventilation by wind tower

• Whereas, the wind speed is low in

wind tower with wetted surface
used.
• This can be used in warm humid
regions without the usage of water
to cool the buildings
Wind tower in Jodhpur Hostel to catch favorable cool
wind from south-west for passive cooling
 11.0 TIME LAG COOLING

 The principle is that the transmission of heat through mass—stone, concrete, adobe-

—is both delayed and attenuated over time. Depending on the material and the

thickness of a massive wall, the delay can stretch from two to 12 hours, and the

greater the lag the greater the attenuation of heat transmitted.

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