Objective
PASCOOL is a research project dealing with passive cooling in buildings for southern European climates (including southeastern Europe) in order to increase thermal comfort, indoor air quality and environmental protection during the summer period, by decreasing electrical use for air conditioning.
The objective is to develop techniques, tools and design guidelines, in order to disseminate the use of passive cooling techniques in buildings. The research will concentrate mainly on solar control and heat attenuation, passive heat removal techniques and interaction between the building and the environment.
The project will provide the following :
- High quality data sets from the monitoring and Test-cell measurements. - A validated version of the design tools PASSPORT-Summer and ESP extended for passive cooling design including performance calculations. - A design Handbook including all the guidelines by topics.
- Climatic files and indices for selected European locations. - An Atlas of potential natural cooling techniques in Southern and Eastern Europe.
The project implemented a unique European structure on passive cooling systems. The most important scientific topics were identified and through experimentation, those techniques most appropriate for use in buildings were determined. Seven software tools were developed and guidelines on passive cooling techniques were written. One set of these guidelines is appropriate for a scientific audience while another set has been designed for designers and architects. Final reports cover natural ventilation and thermal mass, solar control, thermal comfort, natural cooling techniques and climatic data.
PASCOOL combines interrelated research activities distributed among four subgroups :
1.The experimental testing subgroup (ETS)
2.The model development subgroup (MDS)
3.The design guidelines subgroup (DGS)
4.Climate data subgroup (CLI)
The research activities to be covered are :
-The implementation of weather data sets for summer conditions and cooling applications.
-The identification of thermal comfort criteria for indoor and outdoor spaces.
-The evaluation of the potential for microclimatic enhancement and the applicability of natural cooling techniques in Europe.
-The monitoring of solar control techniques for all year performance encompassing thermal and daylighting aspects.
-The definition of the role of thermal mass in free running and air conditionned buildings.
-The determination of air flow patterns in and around buildings and the role of ventilation as a cooling resource.
-The integration of results from the previous topics into a diagnostic, predesign, assessment tool and the set of design guidelines on the above topics for different building types in Europe.
Three Eastern European countries (Hungary, Slovenia and Bulgaria) will also participate to the four subgroups tasks with specific tasks to produce high quality data sets (ETS), test reference climate files and indices (CLI), a design handbook including guidelines for Eastern Europe (DGS) and a contribution to the Atlas of natural cooling techniques for the three countries.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
15784 ZOGRAPHOS, ATHENS
Greece