Passive and Low Energy Buildings

Better energy efficiency in buildings can be achieved with active, passive, and combined strategies. This chapter presents and discusses design strategies for passive and low-energy buildings. Passive buildings fall under low-energy building where special design criteria is in place to reduce the operational energy consumption in a building. Passive and low-energy technologies can provide satisfactory thermal comfort in non-airconditioned buildings. Passive buildings strategies include heat gain prevention, heat modulation and heat dissipation. Building envelope aspects such as walls, glazing, roof, insulation, thermal mass, and shading are discussed here. Low-energy cooling technologies: ground cooling and night ventilation are presented in this chapter. Embodied energy aspect of these technologies is also briefly discussed. Proper architectural design of building envelope along with passive cooling strategies, which are appropriate for the local climate conditions, can significantly improve the energy efficiency and reduce the related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.