ABSTRACT
Natural ventilation can serve a range of purposes in buildings, from delivering fresh air in order to maintain air quality to ventilative cooling to limit temperatures in summertime. It is also known as passive ventilation as no energy is used to drive airflow. This chapter provides an overview of natural ventilation in non-domestic buildings and describes more advanced natural ventilation strategies and technologies available to optimize the performance of naturally ventilated systems. The magnitude and pattern of natural air movement through a building depends on the pressure difference acting across the ventilation path and the resistance of that flow path. The pressure difference driving the air flow is a function of two driving forces – wind and buoyancy. Building designs are developed in response to the client brief, to site-specific conditions and constraints and to further statutory and technical requirements. The microclimate of a building site can have a strong influence on the effectiveness of natural ventilation systems.
