| The goals of implementing natural cooling strategies are to reduce a building's energy consumption, to improve the indoor climate, and to preserve natural resources. Energy preservation and sustainable design are beneficial for the building, its occupants, and the environment. When the passive technique of night flushing is used correctly with the appropriate architectural features, it can greatly reduce or eliminate the need for air conditioning and reduce peak energy demands. To test the efficiency of night flushing and to demonstrate its energy impact and its effect on building performance, the Lakeview Terrace library was chosen as a case study for modeling night flushing. The library is advertised as using night flushing for natural ventilation, but after investigating these claims it was discovered that the library was never designed to night flush. For this research, the library was modeled for night flushing in IES VE-Pro. After the building was modeled, its architectural features were altered to maximize energy efficiency by using night flushing. The simulations show the importance of internal and solar heat gain, as well as the role all of the building's features play in natural ventilation. The results of this study demonstrated that the library redesigned with night flushing could drastically decrease its energy consumption while maintaining a comfortable indoor climate. It demonstrated that if the library would have been designed to naturally ventilate using night flushing, it could have greatly reduced the amount of energy needed for cooling as well as the cost to power its mechanical system. Night flushing offers an energy efficient alternative to HVAC without affecting the occupants' comfort level. |
