Modelling the cooling energy of night ventilation and economiser strategies on façade selection of commercial buildings

Simulations were carried out for a typical office building in Adelaide to demonstrate that a traditional economiser cycle operating 24 h each day under thermostatic control delivers energy savings. A number of façade structures were considered and the effect of varying the location of the thermal mass within the structure was investigated. The paper gives details on the model used for the simulations and discusses the results obtained. It was found that increasing the mass on the inside of the façade is preferred over the external for the warm marine climate zone of Adelaide, South Australia.