An assessment of the impact of natural ventilation strategies and window opening patterns in office buildings in the mediterranean basin

Abstract

The paper presents the key findings of a quantitative field research examining the impact of natural ventilation on the passive cooling of an office unit, in the Mediterranean region. The relevant unit was an open-plan office unit of a typical, medium-weight office building, in the urban centre of Nicosia—the capital of Cyprus—which is located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. During the fieldwork, air and globe temperature as well as air velocity—in both the indoor and the outdoor environment of the unit—were in-situ measured to evaluate the impact of different ventilation strategies on passive cooling, during the summer season. The first phase of the research aimed to assess the effectiveness of three ventilation strategies: daytime, night-time, and full-day ventilation. The outcomes confirmed that night ventilation is the most effective strategy in terms of passive cooling. The second, phase of the study was an in-depth examination of night-time ventilation using four different window and/or door opening patterns, i.e., two patterns of single-sided ventilation and two patterns of cross-ventilation. To complete the fieldwork, a third, and final, phase of the research examined the impact of the airflow on the thermal comfort zone in the case study building. By using quantitative indicators of thermal performance, including the Cooling Degree-Hours (CDH), the research showed that night-time cross-ventilation window patterns, as well as elevated airflow, drastically improved the indoor thermal conditions.