Study of Night Ventilation Efficiency in Urban Environment: Technical and Legal Aspects

Abstract

Night Ventilation is a critical technique of passive cooling, as it combines a significant decrease of cooling demand and improvement of thermal comfort and indoor air quality. The aim of the present paper is to study the technical and legal aspects of night ventilation in urban climatic conditions. The technical part examines the efficiency of night ventilation techniques for urban residential buildings. Moreover, the influence of urban heat island on the night ventilation effectiveness is studied. Urban heat provokes the degradation of urban air quality and causes changes in the urban area microclimate which reduce the night ventilation effectiveness as a passive cooling technique. Moreover, this paper studies the legal framework of energy efficiency in buildings and pinpoints the institutional deficiencies of the existing regulation regarding energy efficiency and passive cooling techniques. © 2011, Versita. All rights reserved.