Passive Solar Design Series - Passive Cooling Techniques

To make our buildings sustianable, it is pertinent that we use minimum amount of mechanical energy to achieve thermal comfort. This is especially challenging in hot climate where high temperature is prevalent most of the year making it inevitable to use mechanical energy for comfort. High humidity can make the situation even more dificult.

Designing buildings that are climate responsive and use as less energy as possible to provide comfort is the way forward. This is is the sustainable approach. Passive solar design principles avoid unwanted heat gain in the building preventing overheating and hence reducing the need for cooling. These principles and strategies are an inherent aspect of the architecture and have been covered in the following courses.

1) Understanding Sun

2) Shadow mask

3) Shading Design

4) Kinetic facades

5) Passive design principles

The next step in the process is to provide cooling with passive techniques that do not use any energy. After having exhausted all the available and applicable strategies, the remaining demand can be met by mechanical space conditioning systems. This approach sharply reduces the cooling demand the associated energy use over the lifetime of the building. This cannot be achieved without climate responsive approach.

This is the sixth course in the series that will cover many passive cooling techniques as applicable to buildings in hot climate. Most of these techniques rely on natural heat sinks to dissipate the excess heat gained by a building. This course also enumerates many interesting projects that showcase successful adoption of passive cooling techniques. The course is structured in 5 modules with highly visual and engaging content.  At the end of the course, you will have clarity on different techniques and their application.