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Also called "natural" cooling, passive cooling is a "passive solar energy technique that allows or augments the natural movement of cooler air from exterior, shaded areas of a building through or around a building."
"A lot of people have trouble imagining that the hot summer sun, can actually cool your house, but it can," write the folks at PermacultureTokyo. "The second law of thermodynamics is our best friend, and it works endlessly for free (or at least as long as the sun exists). Heat rises (in the case of hot air), heat can radiates outward from warm surfaces, and heat will always move toward cooler areas, and if it happens to draw liquid with it, and that liquid evaporates...the inside surface of what just evaporated will be cooler."
Key concepts of passive cooling are:
- Locate windows in the upper floor of the building so that this space is solar-heated during the warm season open the windows when building cooling is needed
- Allow fresh, cooler air to enter the building through the bottom floor; this air may pass through a duct in the ground so that it is further cooled
- Close other windows in the building so that only cooler air from the lower level enters the building
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