Natural Ventilation

Natural ventilation, also called passive ventilation, uses

natural outside air movement and pressure differences to
both passively cool and ventilate a building.
Natural ventilation is important because it can provide and
move fresh air without fans. For warm and hot climates, it can
help meet a building's cooling loads without using mechanical
air conditioning systems. This can be a large fraction of a
building's total energy use.
Successful natural ventilation is determined by having high thermal comfort
and adequate fresh air for the ventilated spaces, while having little or no
energy use for active HVAC cooling and ventilation.
You can choose the right strategy based on the temperature and humidity of
your site. The following chart shows how much these different strategies can
extend the comfortable climate range for people.

Different passive cooling strategies can keep people comfortable at different

ranges of outside temperature and humidity.
This page includes

When not to use natural ventilation

Quantifying ventilation effectiveness
Air speed and temperature in buildings
Opening design
Thermal mass

When not to use natural ventilation

Sites with high levels of acoustic noise, such as near heavy traffic zones, may
be less suitable for natural ventilation because large openings in the building
envelope can make it difficult to block outside noise. This can sometimes be
solved by using acoustical ventilation louvers.
Also, sites with poor air quality, such as adjacent to busy freeways, may also
be less desirable for natural ventilation. Such sites may overcome poor
outdoor air quality with filters and ducting, though this usually requires some
mechanical fan systems.

Quantifying Ventilation Effectiveness

To measure the effectiveness of your ventilation strategies, you can measure
both the volume and speed of the airflow.
The volume of the airflow is important because it dictates the rate at which
stale air can be replaced by fresh air, and determines how much heat the
space gains or losses as a result. The volume of airflow due to wind is:
Q_wind = K A V
Q_wind = airflow volumetric rate (m/h)
K = coefficient of effectiveness (unitless, see below)
A = opening area, of smaller opening (m)
V = outdoor uninterrupted wind speed (m/h)

The coefficient of effectiveness is a number from 0 to 1, adjusting for the

angle of the wind and other fluid dynamics factors, such as the relative size
of inlet and outlet openings. Wind hitting an open window at a 45 angle of
incidence would have a coefficient of effectiveness of roughly 0.4, while wind
hitting an open window directly at a 90 angle would have a coefficient of
roughly 0.8.
When placing ventilation openings, you need to place both air inlets and air
outlets; often they do not have the same area. The opening area used in
this equation is the smaller of the two.

Air Speed and Temperature in Buildings

In addition to volume, you should design for the wind speed inside your
building. Wind speed is a component of human comfort, and the speed you
want depends on the climate.
Higher velocity air causes more effective cooling, because it pulls heated air
away faster, and because it helps sweating be more effective by evaporating
it faster. Even a moderate wind speed can cool perceived temperatures 5C
(9F) compared to still air. This is how fans make people feel cooler even
though they do not change the temperature of the air.
However, the ability of air movement to cool people depends on whether it is
the air itself that is hot, or if the radiant temperatures of the rooms surfaces
are hot. The hotter the air itself is, the less it helps to move it. If people are
primarily hot from surrounding radiant temperatures, however, moving air
helps more. The ASHRAE 55 standard provides guidelines for how much
cooling is possible with air movement at different speeds, for different mean
radiant temperatures. A 3C temperature rise can be nullified by a 0.8 m/s
increase in air speed when air temperatures are 5C below radiant
temperatures, but if air temperatures are 5C warmer than radiant
temperature, it would require a 1.6 m/s increase in air speed. This is far
above what is acceptable wind conditions for light office work.

Comfortable air temperature vs. wind speed depends on mean radiant

temperature

Youll need to make sure that wind speeds inside the building arent so high
that they disturb the occupants. Fast winds can blow papers around on
desks, blow people's hair around, etc (refer back to the Beaufort Wind Scale).
Referring to ASHRAE 55 for thermal comfort guidelines regarding air speeds
for interior spaces, the standard suggests that air speeds appropriate for
indoor environments do not exceed 0.2 m/s or 0.447 mph. ASHRAE
also accounts for elevated air speeds that will increase the acceptable
temperature. The maximum allowable elevated airspeed is 1.5 m/s or
3.579 mph.
It is also important to consider how often the air in a room is replaced, as an
important feature of natural ventilation is that it supplies occupants with
fresh air. The number of times the air in a room is replaced is known as air
changes per hour, ACH, or the air change rate. It is determined by both the
size of the room and the volumetric flowrate of air (Q). Q_wind, referenced
above, is a component of this overall flow rate.
There are standards and recommendations for how much fresh outside air
should be delivered to different building spaces, and to people within the
building. For example, ASHRAE 62.2001 specifies 0.35 air changes per hour

for residential living areas, but also specifies a minimum volumetric flowrate
of 15 ft3/min (CFM) per person.
The equation is:
ACH = (Q / V) * (conversion factor)
Q = volumetric flow rate of fresh air
V = Volume of room or space
Conversion Factor = If the volumetric flow rate, time scales, and volumes
are incongruous units. For example, if Q is in cubic feet per minute (CFM)
and volume is in ft2, youd need to multiply by 60 to get it in terms of hours.
If Q is in cubic meters per second, or Liters per second, the conversion factor
would be different.

Thermal Mass
Thermal mass can also have an impact on natural ventilation. Sometimes a
space can get too hot for natural ventilation to have an impact on thermal
comfort. However, you can use thermal mass to help maintain a consistent
temperature and avoid big jumps. By stabilizing the temperature swings, you
have a better chance of using natural ventilation effectively. Best practice
design strategies for enhancing natural ventilation with thermal mass is
explained further through night flushing.

Dive Deeper
Wind Ventilation

Wind ventilation is a kind of passive ventilation, using the

force of the wind (or local air pressure differences) to pull air
through the building. Wind ventilation is the easiest, most
common, and often least expensive form of passive cooling
and ventilation.

Stack Ventilation and Bernoulli's Principle

Stack ventilation and Bernoulli's principle are two kinds of

passive ventilation that use air pressure differences due to
height to pull air through the building. Lower pressures
higher in the building help pull air upward.

Night-Purge Ventilation
Night-Purge Ventilation (or "night flushing") keeps windows
closed during the day, but open at night to flush warm air out
of the building and cool thermal mass for the next day. Night
flushing is only suitable for climates with a relatively high
temperature range from day to night, like the desert.