Cool*Buildings - Cooling Strategies in Residential Buildings

Research approach: If the operation of residential buildings in 2040 is to be climate-neutral and at the same time affordable, the construction industry must already draw more attention to the cooling of buildings, even in today's temperate climates. Due to their long service life, buildings must be designed to be adaptable and future-proof, making climate-resilient planning and taking valid climate forecasts into account indispensable. In this project, the potential of passive measures will be demonstrated for different residential building types and illustrated with examples. The focus of the project lies in the area of multi-storey residential buildings, whereby common residential building typologies from Salzburg and Lower Austria are used for the study. Only in a next step, it has to be investigated, how the remaining cooling load can be further reduced by using passive cooling measures (e.g. night ventilation, free cooling etc.). Solely then, if these measures are not sufficient, should active cooling be planned by using energy-efficient technologies and natural ambient temperatures (e.g. ground). In addition to ecological and economic criteria, environmentally relevant aspects such as noise and waste, heat generation is also evaluated. The energy assessment is based on comprehensive thermodynamic building simulations. The basis for the calculation is a status-quo survey of different existing solutions as well as those under development. Intended results: Based on the calculation results, a tool for planning as well as for awareness raising and sensitization will be developed. The planning basis to be developed shows the potential of suitable cooling strategies and evaluates their effectiveness and sustainability with regard to future climate scenarios. The project makes a significant contribution to sustainable building planning (new construction and renovation of existing buildings) and is intended to prepare companies, planners and the public sector for the changes in housing, caused by climate change. In addition, important fields of research and innovation in the field of building cooling will be identified. Furthermore, the results of the project will be made available to the international IEA EBC Annex 80, which will be launched in summer 2019, and will contribute to Subtask A on the assessment of resilient cooling solutions for the Alpine and Central European climate (operating agent: DI Dr. Peter Holzer, Institute of Building Research & Innovation). Research objectives: - Creation of a planning basis for the potential assessment of climate-appropriate architecture and measures as well as the decision-making process for passive and active cooling measures in multi-storey residential buildings. - Identification of future markets and important actions in the field of building cooling - Creation of a technical basis for the evaluation of summer comfort in residential buildings for implementation in standards and guidelines.