ABSTRACT
Introduction The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of sustainable cooling strategy options and to highlight the main design characteristics and requirements. Sustainable low-energy cooling strategies have the capability to minimize mechanical cooling loads in buildings while reducing the occurrence of summertime thermal discomfort and overheating. Increased interest in sustainable cooling strategies has been underpinned by the fact that almost half of global energy consumption originates from buildings and 16 per cent of this energy represents the energy consumed by air conditioning (Ortiz, 2006). Furthermore, due to climate change, growing internal heat loads in buildings and the inappropriateness of building construction, cooling energy demand in Europe is continuously rising (see Figure 20.1).
