Air conditioning may become a thing of the past, as researchers continue to study the use of natural ventilation in
inner city buildings.
Researchers Nick Locke of Opus Central Laboratories and Michael Donn of Victoria University are investigating the
technical and economic viability of naturally ventilating inner city buildings. The research is an investment of the
Public Good Science Fund, its aim is to reduce reliance on air conditioning and mechanical air handling systems.
“The use of natural ventilation in preference to existing mechanical environmental control systems has the potential for
considerable savings in energy usage and operating costs and indirectly reducing the environmental impacts of commercial
buildings” said Mr Locke.
Very few commercial buildings make use of natural ventilation in their design. The research is using the Victoria
University School of Architecture building to contrast the existing mechanical ventilation system with design
alternatives incorporating natural ventilation.
“Architects and developers are expected to increasingly incorporate natural ventilation in their buildings because of
the degree of personal control and air quality it offers” said Mr Donn.
“Natural ventilation is often ruled out for urban buildings because of today’s need to guarantee the performance of the
indoor environment” he said.
“Energy efficient building ventilation is looking at reliable ways of predicting wind and thermally induced indoor air
movement in existing and new urban buildings”.
The research has incorporated a number of natural ventilation design tools and analysis techniques such as wind tunnel
studies, computational fluid dynamics, dynamic thermal modelling and traffic noise models.