Night cooling control strategies - Final report (Withdrawn) (RR5/96)

The final report of research inspired by the need to use appropriate night cooling control strategies to achieve the maximum amount of cooling while avoiding overcooling, reducing energy consumption and costs. The research involved site monitoring for night cooling control strategies in actual office buildings based on a low energy design. The performance of the control strategies was further verified through the use of thermal simulation software. Among the conclusions states that the application of complex control algorithms is not necessary to achieve cost savings. What is important is the careful selection of the control setpoints to initiate night cooling and to optimise the amount of night cooling taking place. Night cooling by mechanical ventilation was no more successful than natural ventilation and also imposed a significant energy penalty. Mechanical ventilation should be restricted to bad weather conditions, when natural ventilation is not feasible.