Passive Design 2.

Use landscaping to provide shade

- Design that works with the without blocking cooling breezes and
environment to exclude unwanted use planting to reduce ground
heat or cold and take advantage of temperature and minimize reflected
sun and breezes heat.
- Induce comfort conditions in the
building interiors Main Considerations
- Avoid or minimize the need for 1. Orientation
mechanical heating or cooling 2. Ventilation
3. Landscaping
Passive Cooling 4. Thermal Mass
- The use of passive cooling principles 5. Insulation
in the tropics results in a building 6. Windows
that is comfortable, energy efficient 7. Natural lighting
and results in substantial savings in
running costs of both cooling and 1. Orientation
lighting. - Concerns the position of the building
on the site as well as the
Active Cooling arrangements of the rooms within it.
- A building design approach that
addresses the problem of inducing Two main goals to consider when
comfort by means of equipment that considering the building orientation:
consume energy ❖ Orientation for minimal solar heat
gain
Principles of Passive Design ❖ Orientation for maximum air flow
❖ Avoid heat gain
❖ Encourage natural ventilation
❖ Make use of natural light
❖ Create cool outdoor areas

How To Avoid Heat Gain

1. Orient the building to reduce
exposure to midday sun, particularly
summer sun
2. Use materials with low thermal mass
as a general rule
3. Shade walls and windows,
particularly any walls with high
thermal mass
4. Use glazing on windows that cannot
be effectively shaded
5. Use insulation, light colors, and
heat-reflective surfaces

How to Encourage Natural Ventilation

1. Orient the building and windows
towards prevailing winds Sun charts illustrating the variation in
2. Include operable windows and
the sun’s movement in relation to
ceiling vents that enable the building
latitude.
to naturally ventilate.

How To Make Use of Natural Light 2. Ventilation

1. Install shaded windows - Circulation of air or to replace
2. Install shaded skylights, light tubes stale air with fresh air
and other natural lighting devices
Stack ventilation
How to Create Cool Outdoor Areas - Uses the principle of connection
1. Use verandas and deep balconies to to induce air flow
shade and cool incoming air
3. Landscaping
- Reducing the extent of paving
and other hard surfaces with
vegetation
- The hard surfaces of pavements
around buildings absorb and
re-radiate heat, creating a hotter
microclimate
- Thus, it is smart to minimize the
extent of paving and replace
them with vegetation.
- Planting areas around the
building creates a cooler
environment due to a plant’s
ability to transpire or lose
moisture, which cools the air
- External temperatures can be
reduced by over 5 degree celsius
by using ground cover or lawn
instead of paving
- Denser vegetation provides a
greater cooling effect
- Air that is drawn from planted
areas is much cooler than air
drawn from paved areas
Urban Heat Island
- A city or metropolitan area that is
significantly warmer than its
surrounding rural areas due to
human activities
4. Thermal Mass
- The ability of building materials to
absorb, store, and release heat
- In tropical climates, the use of
materials with low thermal mass
is preferable particularly on walls
that are directly exposed to the
sun
- This is because lightweight
construction such as timber
respond quickly to cooling
breezes, allowing the building to
cool down faster
5. Insulation
- Controls the rate at which a
building loses or gains heat,
keeping warmer air in during
winter and excluding external
heat in summer
- One of the most effective ways to
reduce heat input to a building
and can be installed in the roof,
ceiling and walls on the building
6. Windows
- Windows are important to
encourage and direct airflow into
a building
- Louvers and casement style
windows allow building users to
control how much natural air
enters the building
- Well-placed louvers or windows,
at floor level and at the highest
point of the room, create
convection air flow which draws
air into the building and creates
breezes to cool occupants.
Tinted glass - Eggcrates combine the shading
- Has a tint applied to the glass characteristics of horizontal and
during manufacture, to reduce vertical louvers and have a high
the amount of heat transmitted shading ratio
through it. - Eggcrates sometimes referred to
as brise-soleil, are very efficient
Reflective Coatings in hot climates
- Thin films of metal or metal oxide
that are applied to standard glass
- They stop greater amounts of
heat gain than some toned glass,
- however, they have the potential
to create glare problems for
neighboring properties, and can
significantly reduce the quality of
light admitted through the glass - Solar blinds and screens can
provide up to 50% reduction in
Solar Shading solar reflection, depending on
- Shading devices shield windows their reflectivity
and other glazed areas from - Heat-absorbing glass can absorb
direct sunlight in order to reduce up to 40% of the radiation
glare and excessive solar heat reaching its surface
gain in warm weather.
- Horizontal overhangs are most
effective when they have
southern orientations

7. Natural Lighting
- Maximizing the amount of natural
light that enters the building can
lead to significant energy savings
by reducing the need for artificial
- Horizontal louvers parallel to a lighting
wall permit air circulation near the
wall and reduce conductive heat Maximizing Natural Light
gain ● Skylights
- Louvers may be operated ● Atria
manually or controlled ● Light shelves
automatically with time or ● Clerestory windows
photoelectric controls to adapt to ● Light tubes
the solar angle
Skylights
- can provide ventilation as well as
light.
- Ventilating a building with an
operable skylight releases the hot
air that naturally accumulates
near the ceiling.
- Ventilating skylights usually open
outward at the bottom, and some
 units vent through a small, hinged
panel.
Clerestory Windows
- These are high vertically placed
windows that are ideally north
facing
- Clerestory windows can be a
good source of diffuse light, and
can also be useful in allowing hot
air to leave the building

Atria
- An atrium is a large open space,
often several stories high and
having a glazed roof and/or large
windows
- The benefit of an atrium is that
hot air can be vented at the top
rather than accumulating near the
building users.

Light Tubes
Light Shelves
- A light shelf is an architectural
element that allows daylight to
penetrate deeper into a building
- A light shelf is a horizontal
light-reflecting overhang which is
plated above eye-level and has a
high-reflectance upper surface
- Tube lights, known as linear light
bulbs, are frequently used in
office buildings, kitchens and
commercial installations, as well
as homes, with varying sizes and
brightness levels.
- Transmit or distribute natural or
artificial light for the purpose of
illumination and examples of
optical waveguides.