Passive cooling techniques.

Passive cooling techniques can be used to

reduce or eliminate mechanical air
conditioning requirements in areas where
cooling is a dominant problem.
By Convective method.
Natural ventilation: By providing
appropriate openings in suitable locations.
The oldest straight forward method admits
cool night air to drive out the warm air.
2.Buoyancy ventilation: It is more
commonly referred to as temperature
induced or stack ventilation. Cool air is
heavier than warm air at the same
humidity. Thus air flow is generated by
dropping of the heavier air, forcing the
lighter air to exhaust.
Proper position of openings.
Another convective cooling strategy is the
drawing of outdoor air through tubes buried
in the ground and dumped into the house.
Made of material that allows easy thermal
transfer, these tubes are buried several feet
deep to avoid the warmer daytime surface
temperatures.
Warm outdoor air entering the tube gives up
its heat to the cooler earth, and cools
substantially before entering the house.
Thermal saturation of the surrounding earth
must be addressed, by means of surface
landscaping and watering, thereby removing
the gained thermal energy from the
tube/earth transfers.
Though condensation is rarely a problem
in dry climates, such tubes should be
sloped slightly and have adequate
drainage to insure that water build-up
doesn't block the passage of air. The
intake end should be screened and
placed in a shady spot away from foot
traffic. When properly built and sized,
these underground tubes can supply cool
air during the peak load daytime even in
the hottest climates.

By using under ground buried air
tubes.
Shady devices:
A horizontal over
hang or an awning
above a south
window is an
inexpensive effective
solution.
Wing Walls.

Wing walls are vertical solid panels placed
alongside of windows perpendicular to the
wall on the windward side of the house.
Figure 4
Top View of Wing Walls Airflow Pattern
Wing walls will accelerate the natural wind
speed due to pressure differences created by
the wing wall.
Top View of Wing Walls Airflow Pattern;
Thermal Chimney:

A thermal chimney employs convective
currents to draw air out of a building. By
creating a warm or hot zone with an exterior
exhaust outlet, air can be drawn into the
house ventilating the structure.
Sunrooms can be designed to perform this
function. The excessive heat generated in a
south facing sunroom during the summer can
be vented at the top. With the connecting
lower vents to the living space open along
with windows on the north side, air is drawn
through the living space to be exhausted
through the sunroom upper vents. (The
upper vents from the sunroom to the living
space and any side operable windows must
be closed and the thermal mass wall in the
sunroom must be shaded.)
A trellis with deciduous
vines can be used.
Another good
strategy is the use of
deciduous trees that
shade the south face
and roof during the
summer. All these
shading methods
work equally well
with Trombe walls,
water walls,
greenhouses, and
other south-wall
passive solar
collector strategies.
EVAPORATIVE COOLING METHODS
When water evaporates it absorbs a
large amount of heat from its surroundings.
Evaporative methods can be used to
enhance the cooling rates in convective
cooling systems.
Using earth tubes and by using cooling
towers.
A cool tower requires no blower fans to
move the cool air. The only power required
is for a small 12 volt DC pump to circulate
water over the cooler pads.
Basic cool tower design: Cool
towers use gravity to move
cool air without any fans.
Generally cool towers are
6x6 to 10x10, 20 to 30 tall
for a building with one or 2
storey. These cool towers will
cool 1000 to 2500 sq.ft. Air
flow for these cool towers will
range from 2500 to 8000
CFM.

Basic cool tower design:
Common cool tower design:
Advanced cool tower design:
Common cool tower design.
Consists of wet pads in tower. Water must flow
down pads air must pass through them in order to
have evaporation needed to cool the air.
As wind blows through the wet pads, water absorbs
heat from air, and evaporates. Thus making the air
cool. Vents must have a larger openinh than those
used with a forced air system because there is no
pressurized fan blower in this system.This tower is
6x6x30in dimensions.
Advanced cool tower design.
To create a large air flow down the cool
tower, there will be one large swivel scoop
above the pads in the tower.The scoops
should have a venturi system to keep the
scoop oriented into the wind.Instead of one
large opening ,install smaller openings in the
roof with down wind swivel scoops to remove
the heat. With this system the wind can blow
from any direction and cool tower will
continue to function.This is a more efficient
design than using a solar chimney.

The intake air scoop should be made o/o
aluminium or designed with an aluminium frame
with canvas stretched over it.The canvas scoop
is recommended because it is lighter and
generates no noise.

In this design the pads are just below the scoop
inside the tower with ducting to direct the air
flow into and through the pads.This reduces the
size area of the cooler pads, thus reducing the
cost.The design requires about 20 sqft of 4 thk
pads.Cooler pads that are inside the tower and
below the scoop are protected from the direct
sunlight.The tower size is 6 square 30 high.
The air scoop occupies the top 4. Two pads of
3 square 4 thk located just below the air
scoop.