High Performance Design Training: Natural Ventilation, Indoor Air Quality and Energy Performance

Natural ventilation is a fundamental design strategy in healthy, high-performance buildings. Also known as natural cooling, it provides benefits for occupants, such as improved thermal comfort and healthy indoor air quality. Additional energy benefits include reduced mechanical ventilation and access to night flush cooling. Despite the evidence supporting natural ventilation, design teams often encounter roadblocks due to technical concerns from owners or consultants, inexperience with non-traditional design analysis tools, or questions about comfort and air quality.

This four-hour workshop will detail the benefits of natural ventilation in commercial and institutional buildings and give participants tools to help overcome any barriers. Instructors will demonstrate how to set goals, approach the design process, test design alternatives and verify performance. Participants will also get insight into existing buildings that have implemented these strategies.

Course Learning Objectives:

• Describe energy and non-energy (e.g. indoor air quality) benefits associated with implementing natural ventilation strategies
• Understand the differences between natural ventilation for fresh air requirements, natural cooling for daytime comfort, and night flush cooling of thermal mass
• Learn about tools used to design multiple natural ventilation strategies to meet various design goals in commercial buildings
• Understand appropriate design analysis tools to analyze a range of natural ventilation design alternatives
• Learn how to approach measurement and validation of natural ventilation strategies in existing buildings

Presenters:

Jeff Kline – Senior Research Associate, Energy Studies in Buildings Laboratory, University of Oregon (UO-ESBL)

Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg – PHD, Associate Professor, UO-ESBL