Our concern for finding ways to save the environment makes natural ventilation an attractive method for reducing energy consumption and at the same time providing healthy, comfortable, and productive indoor climate in steel buildings. In appropriate settings where natural ventilation is used as an alternative to air-conditioning, as much as 30% of the total energy consumption can be saved.
Natural ventilation would benefit the following types of steel buildings:
· Bus stations, picnic shelters, and other steel buildings where stringent space conditioning (space heating + space cooling) is not expected
· Barracks and other single- and multi-family housing projects
· Small, free standing steel buildings in warm and temperate climates
· Warehouses, maintenance pools, and other high-bay facilities in warm climates
The online encyclopedia defines natural ventilation as the process of supplying and removing air through an indoor space by natural means. Counting on natural forces such as wind and buoyancy, natural ventilation systems rely on variations of pressure to deliver fresh air through buildings. For steel buildings to have efficient natural ventilation, both types should be implemented.
Wind blows air through the openings in the wall on the windward side of steel buildings, and suck air out of openings on the leeward side and the roof. Temperature variations between warm air inside and cool air outside causes the air in steel buildings to rise and exit at the ceiling or ridge, and enter via lower openings in the wall.
In the same fashion, buoyancy caused by a difference in indoor-to-outdoor air density resulting from temperature and moisture differences allows a pressurized column of dense, cooled air to come in, and lighter, warmer, humid air to come out near the top of steel buildings.
(to be continued)
Source: http://www.wbdg.org/resources/naturalventilation.php#