Natural Ventilation Building Design Approach in Mediterranean Regions—A Case Study at the Valencian Coastal Regional Scale (Spain)

Miguel Mora-Pérez, Ignacio Guillen-Guillamón, Gonzalo López-Patiño and Petra Amparo López-Jiménez
Additional contact information
Miguel Mora-Pérez: Hydraulic Engineering and Environment Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 València, Spain
Ignacio Guillen-Guillamón: Physic Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 València, Spain
Gonzalo López-Patiño: Hydraulic Engineering and Environment Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 València, Spain
Petra Amparo López-Jiménez: Hydraulic Engineering and Environment Department, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 València, Spain

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: Environmental awareness has led to an increased concern about low carbon technologies implementation. Among these technologies, the following research is focused on the natural ventilation effect evaluation in buildings prior to its construction. The aim is to select the most suitable architectural solution to ensure comfortable indoor environment in the most efficient way in the early building design stage. The design approach takes into account the wind conditions in the region and the building surroundings to evaluate the façade opening distribution impact on natural ventilation performance. The design approach is based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this article, a case study located in the Valencian Community (Spain) is depicted. The Valencian Community coastal climatic conditions are evaluated to assess the low carbon technology energy saving potential. Moreover, the main drivers and barriers involved in the design approach implementation in the region are discussed. The conclusions show that the natural ventilation design approach can improve up to 9.7% the building energy performance respect an initial building design, in which natural ventilation has not been considered. The results contribute to an assessment of the complete low carbon technology effect in the region.

Keywords: low carbon technologies; energy efficient buildings; natural ventilation; wind energy; computational fluid dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/855/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/855/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:9:p:855-:d:76889

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().