In most developing countries mechanical air conditioning is expensive and out of reach of low income and many middle income families. An alternative are passive cooling systems, which can be built at lower costs, using local labor and resources, while generating income that stays in the community. Three passive cooling systems have been tested in this dissertation to determine their applicability in warm climates. A smart shading system that can be combined with all of these systems has also been tested.

An intelligent automatic control system that manages air flow according to cooling needs in a building and resources in the outdoor environment was designed to manage nocturnal ventilative cooling (night flushing) and daytime comfort ventilation (economizer cooling). Results indicate that when outdoor conditions are suitable and the building has sufficient thermal mass, this is an inexpensive cooling system that can save energy and maintain indoor air temperature inside comfort boundaries.

The smart controller was also used to manipulate an operable shading system which was tested inside and outside the test cell’s window. This system reduced the indoor maximum temperature of the experimental cell compared to the control cell. Hourly data recorded in these cells was used to validate HEED, a whole-building energy simulation program and model the performance of these shades in California’s climate zones.

An operable radiant cooling system was tested with different configurations of mass and insulation. The position of the mass inside the space, the amount of solar radiation and the insulation level of the walls affected the temperature distribution and swing inside the cell. From the recorded experimental results equations that predicted indoor maximum temperature have been developed.

An indirect evaporative cooling system was also tested and proved to be a reliable cooling source. Its performance is a function of the outdoor average wet bulb temperature. Equations that predicted indoor maximum temperature have also been developed.

This dissertation demonstrates that the performance of all the systems can be boosted with smart controllers that take advantage of instantaneous climate conditions.

For more information email me at pmlaroche@csupomona.edu