1: Passive Solar Cooling | 2: Natural Ventilation | 3: Air Cooling
Air Cooling Devices
Apart from ventilation, the effectiveness of natural cooling is dependent on the degree to which internal air temperatures are reduced. Because ventilation alone cannot reduce air temperatures to below that of the external ambient temperature, some means of cooling incoming air, or accessing a store of cool air, must be employed. Several solutions exist, including:
- drawing fresh air from a shaded outside area, possibly a shaded garden area
- drawing fresh air from an underground cooling device such as a rockbed or cooling duct
- drawing fresh air from underground caves (eg the Costozzo Villas near Vicenza in Italy, designed by the architect Palladio)
- drawing fresh air from an underground fresh water duct such as the qanat, a highly effective technique commonly used in the Middle East and North Africa
- drawing air through a downdraught evaporative cooling tower
The most effective and practical solution is the downdraught evaporative cooling tower, a modified air inlet tower which incorporates a means of evaporating water into hot dry air at the top of a tower. Thich cools the incoming air and increases its humidity and density, causing a downdraught of cool air that enters the building and lowers the temperature inside it. Airflow can be increased by using a wind-catcher at the top of the air inlet tower, and a wind-escape or solar chimney on the opposite side of the building to draw air out of the building.
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