Using natural ventilation to provide ventilation and/or cooling in commercial buildings
has a number of direct benefits to the environment, building occupants, building owners,
and architects. Despite advances now occurring in design methods, major obstacles still
need to be overcome before a wide spread adoption of natural ventilation technologies
will be seen. Most importantly, simple tools that can be used by architects in the initial
stages of design of naturally ventilated buildings are required.
Existing natural ventilation design rules of thumb were identified from published
literature and building codes and standards. A computer model, capable of simulating
both naturally induced airflow rates and building thermal performance, was used to
evaluate natural ventilation performance in terms of ability to avoid overheating and
provide ventilation for indoor air quality.
First the effect of changes to building design parameters on the natural ventilation
performance of a base case office building were investigated. Secondly, the validity and
limitations of existing rules of thumb were evaluated. The base case building was a three
story cross ventilated office building surrounded by large local wind and solar
obstructions, simulated with climate data for the cities of Vancouver and Toronto.
It was found that the development of most of the existing rules of thumb has been based
on incomplete research, and the conditions under which they can be applied are poorly
defined. When the limitations of these rules of thumb were investigated, it was found
that the original rules of thumb are generally not accurate for either the climates of
Vancouver or Toronto. More accurate ranges of applicability were developed for each
rule of thumb for each of the two climates.
The relative influence of design parameters on reducing overheating and increasing
ventilation rates for indoor air quality were also established, and can be used to provide
guidance into how changes made to the building form and fabric can effect overheating
and indoor air quality.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11304 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Edwards, Craig |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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