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Stanford CEE 215 - Lecture Notes

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SummarySun, land, and water interact in complicated ways throughouteach day and throughout the year, and the result is what wecommonly refer to as weather. These interactions produce dailyas well as seasonal temperature, humidity, and wind patterns thatcan vary substantially between locations in close geographicproximity. California, in particular, has many diverse climatecharacteristics that occur across the state. Yet, many architectsand engineers develop their design strategies for new buildingswithout full consideration of the impact of regional and site-specific climate conditions.Climate-responsive design is a strategy that seeks to takeadvantage of the positive climate attributes of a particularlocation, while minimizing the effects of attributes that mayimpair comfort or increase energy requirements. Designers whostrive to develop comfortable, low-energy buildings can enjoy thebenefits of climate-responsive design by considering five basicpoints in the course of designing new commercial buildings.1. Understand climate zones and microclimates2. Understand the basic physiology of human thermal comfort3. Control the sun to reduce loads and enhance visual comfort4. Use thermal mass to improve comfort and efficiency5. Select space-conditioning strategies that are climate responsiveenergydesignresourcesBy understanding climaticconditions that are specific to aproject’s location, design teamsare able to develop climate-responsive building designs. Theresult is a building that utilizesless energy and provides ahigh quality and comfortableenvironment for the occupants. contentsIntroduction 2Understand Climate Zones and Microclimates 5Understand Human Thermal Comfort 8Control the Sun 15Use Thermal Mass 21Select Space-ConditioningStrategies 24Conclusions 28For More Information 29Notes 31DESIGN FOR YOUR CLIMATEdesign briefpage 2 design for your climateIntroductionIn California’s commercial new construction market, emphasis isplaced on minimizing the time and effort required for newbuildings to be built and occupied. As a result, many owners anddevelopers favor simple building shapes along with constructionmethods and materials that facilitate an “assembly line” approachto building. Unfortunately, the efficiency of this approach isusually achieved at the expense of other important buildingcharacteristics—namely, comfort and energy efficiency. Statedanother way, owners and developers are producing buildings thatare designed independent of climatic conditions, instead ofdesigning for their particular climate.According to the California Energy Commission (CEC), the stateis officially divided into sixteen climate zones. The climaticcharacteristics of a building’s particular location—temperature,humidity, wind, and sun—can either help or hinder the designer’sefforts to provide comfort for building occupants.A building witha climate-responsive design includes design features and buildingsystems that allow it to take advantage of all that its climate hasto offer—be it a cool, coastal breeze or a hot, dry summer. Abuilding that has been designed in the context of its prevailingclimatic conditions will usually have lower operating costs yetachieve higher occupant satisfaction than buildings where suchconsiderations have not been made.What is Climate-Responsive Design?Climate-responsive design seeks to create inherently comfortablebuildings that require minimum energy input.Such buildings takeadvantage of regional climatic characteristics that can help withcomfort and efficiency, while minimizing the impact of anycharacteristics that may impair performance. Climate-responsivedesign may be thought of as the ultimate expression of buildingefficiency—achieving what we desire (a comfortable building)with the lowest possible energy input.“What is Climate-Responsive Design?”If the old adage, “If life gives youlemons, make lemonade,” were modifiedto express the underlying philosophy ofclimate-responsive design it would readas follows. “If your climate gives you scorchingdaytime temperatures, low relativehumidity, and wide daily temperatureswings, thoughtfully design your buildingwith evaporative cooling, nighttimeventilation and high thermal mass.”page 3design for your climateTo gain a better understanding of this concept, it is worthwhileto understand some of the events that influenced currentarchitectural and urban design practices. In the era beforerefrigerated air conditioning was available, climate-responsiveness was an essential building feature because therewas no other reasonable way to maintain acceptabletemperatures within the building. Architects and engineersemployed imaginative schemes to bring daylight and ventilationinto all parts of a building in order to provide a comfortableworking environment. In those times, it was essential to createinherently comfortable buildings (Figure 1).That all changed in 1906, when a young employee at BuffaloForge Company by the name of Willis Carrier obtained a patentfor his “Apparatus for Treating Air” that he designed several yearsbefore to regulate environmental conditions at a Brooklynprinting plant. This printing plant was encountering problemsbecause changes in temperature and humidity caused thedimensions of their printing paper to change, resulting inmisalignment of printed text. It took nearly 20 more years for theidea of keeping people cool and dry (and not just rolls of paper)to catch on, when the J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit,Michigan installed three centrifugal chillers and shoppers beganto flock to the "air-conditioned" store. Though the GreatDepression and World War II slowed the growth of airconditioning for non-industrial purposes, the inward and outwardappearance of buildings was irrevocably altered in the post-warera as the building community wholeheartedly embraced thisnew technology.With the advent of air conditioning, it was no longer essential toprovide natural ventilation and daylight in building designs – theability to extract heat from all parts of a building allowedarchitects and engineers to use as much glass and electricallighting as they pleased. In addition, building shapes that wereonce favored because they provided access to natural light andventilation were dropped in favor of shapes that maximizedDesigned by Architect George H.Wymanin 1893 about 30 years before the adventof air conditioning for human comfort,the Bradbury


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Stanford CEE 215 - Lecture Notes

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