A literature review of night ventilation strategies in buildings

The rising costs of energy usage in the building sector have intensified research interest in passive energy saving strategies such as night ventilation (NV). Night ventilation has been shown to reduce the energy demand for cooling buildings as well as significantly ameliorate thermal comfort. A large number of studies have been undertaken to model and assess the effectiveness of NV across a wide variety of climates and building types. This paper reviews the key research on night ventilation strategies and identifies the main themes and directions present in contemporary research. It also classifies NV performance into three broad groups, namely climate, building and technical parameters. The literature provides evidence that night ventilation strategies are effective across most climate types, but as with most passive design strategies, optimization is required. Approaches to research within the reviewed literature include computer simulations and empirical studies; testing with full-scale physical prototypes; and monitoring of real world case studies. The effectiveness of different strategies in different climates is examined, as are NV control systems, and the coupling of NV with other systems.