Beautiful architecture
- No unsightly pipe-work or duct penetrations and no space consuming ventilation units.
- Possibility of increased ceiling heights, as natural ventilation does not require suspended ceilings.
- More daylight and transparency, for example, using atriums that can be used for natural ventilation.
100% use of space
- With natural ventilation you will get full utilisation of the building floor plate and floor to ceiling height, since there are no need for space for large air handling units and equipment rooms.
- A mechanical ventilation system obtains up to 6.5% of a buildings floor are compared to only 0.2% for a natural ventilation system.
High user satisfaction
- With a natural ventilation solution from WindowMaster it is easy to divide your building into different zones e.g. an office space in order to address several demands.
- Users always have the option to override the automatic control, therefore providing high satisfaction.
- In air-conditioned buildings, only 50% of the occupants are satisfied whereas in naturlly ventilated buildings 77% of the occupants are satisfied with indoor temperatue.
Gentle refurbishment
- With natural ventilation, it is possible to establish a good indoor climate in for example protected buildings, without the need to break through walls and ceilings with ducts and making rooms for large ventilation units.
- Natural ventilation is an obvious choice if the building should replace the old windows with newer ones. Here you can easily install actuators for natural ventilation.
Fast refurbishment
- The refurbishment can be completed very quickly, which allows the building occupants to have minimal disruption if you choose natural ventilation rather than mechanical ventilation. This may also enable you to avoid having the users of the building relocated while renovation takes place.
Lower expenditure
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Fewer and less expensive components and construction work are some of the contributing factors that makes natural ventilation the low-cost option for a better indoor climate.
- Building life cycles cost (capital cost, operating cost and maintenance) is 5 times cheaper with natural ventilation compared to mechanical ventilation and 2.5 times cheaper with hybrid/mixed mode ventilation.
- Less than 1 year payback or an average ROI (return of investment) of at least 120% for natural ventilation and mixed-mode systems, due to the energy, health and productivity benefits.
Better indoor climate
- Studies have shown that people who are staying in buildings with natural ventilation have fewer building related symptoms such as headaches, eye irritation etc..
- Increased productivity gains of 3 - 18% compared to mechanical ventilation and savings on health cost of 0.8 - 1.3%.
- Sick building syndromes symptoms can be reduced by more than 65% with a natural ventilation solution.
What is natural ventilation?
Natural ventilation can be anything from an open window to large complex systems with double skin facades, ducts and dampers, chimneys and computer control for multiple parameters.
Natural ventilation means that there is no energy used to move air, instead it is the "natural" drivers moving air.
The driving forces of natural ventilation can be
- Pressure difference. There will usually be a difference in the air pressure on the two opposite sides of a building. This is particular used by having cross ventilation, where you have openings on both sides (e.g. windows). Cross ventilation is the most simple (and effective) form of natural ventilation.
- Thermal buoyancy (stack effect) - where warm air rises and cold air falls. This could be exploited by double skin facades, 3G windows, chimneys and atriums.
- Wind - either directly or by means of "wind cowls," which is a kind of wind-powered ventilators.
Reduced energy consumption
Natural ventilation regulates the indoor climate by a controlled air flow through the windows. Compared to mechanical ventilation natural ventilation uses only a small amount of energy when the windows open and close. A head to head comparison shows that natural ventilation has a 40% lower CO2 emission than a system with mechanical ventilation.
