Impact of control rules on the efficiency of shading devices and free cooling for office buildings

To develop low-energy architecture, designers need knowledge about passive cooling techniques and shading devices. This paper focuses on the impact of management strategies for external mobile shadings and cooling by natural ventilation. Various control rules are simulated for both techniques. Resulting energy demand and comfort conditions are discussed. For shadings, strategies based on both internal temperature and solar irradiation set points are shown to be more efficient than strategies based on solar irradiation or internal temperature alone. For natural ventilation, strategies limiting the flow rate when outside temperature exceeds internal temperature are found to have no major impact on comfort conditions for the Belgian weather. A flow rate limitation when external temperature drops is found to be efficient to save energy. Objectives of this paper are to show that management choices have a real impact on energy and comfort criteria and to help designers to choose the adequate management rules for their projects.