Solar thermal modelling of a building with a roof pond and ventilation control systems

The paper proposes and presents thermal modelling of a ventilation-controlled, non-air-conditioned building with evaporative cooling (e.g. open water pond) over the roof for passive solar air conditioning. The ventilation rate, expressed in terms of number of air changes per hour, is assumed to be time-dependent, as should be the case in normal practice. A self-consistent periodic heat transfer analysis for a non-air-conditioned building with roof cooling and ventilation control systems, furnishing (assumed isothermal mass), windows, door and basement ground heat storage effects has been developed to assess the feasibility of the proposed passive space air-conditioning. It is shown that for no-ventilation summer nights the inside air temperature remains higher than the ambient air temperature even with an effective roof cooling system, and hence the windows should be opened to lose the internal heat and to introduce cool and fresh outside air. It is found that for a ventilation-controlled building with a roof pond the passive solar air conditioning can be achieved more effectively.