By Grey Lee
Buildings are designed to shelter us from the harshness of nature, but the most comfortable and energy-efficient indoor environments are those that use the free resources of the outdoors for heating and cooling. For many architects, using the outdoors to create more comfortable indoor environments means using operable windows for natural ventilation. To the mechanical engineers, bringing the outside in means using an airside or waterside economizer. However, these simplified versions of climate responsive building designs ignore other possibilities for harvesting outdoor thermal resources to maintain indoor comfort.
Although opening windows and using economizers have their benefits, they can also create new problems such as indoor pollution through the introduction of outdoor particulates. These deficiencies can be overcome by smart design strategies that make better use of the exterior thermal resource. Strategies that enable the design team to minimize building energy consumption without compromising occupant comfort include:
- Dividing free cooling into two components – humidity control and sensible cooling. This way free sensible cooling can be provided, even when energy-consuming indoor dehumidification is required.
- Achieving thermal comfort not only by convective heat exchange between the human body and the air, but also by radiant exchange with building surfaces. Use free natural resources to cool interior surfaces to maintain comfort.
- Recognize that the outdoor thermal resource also has three components: sensible, evaporative and radiant. Create systems that can use each of these components as they are available and are not dependent on their simultaneous availability.
- Recognize that outdoor thermal resources may not be available coincidentally with indoor thermal requirements. Add controllable capacitance (thermal storage) to the system to harvest outdoor thermal resources when available for later delivery for indoor comfort maintenance.
Attend this great educational session on Thursday October 2nd – “Bring the Outside Inside: Using the Outdoors to Create Indoor Comfort” with Thornton Tomasetti’s Gunnar Hubbard Principal and Syska Henessy's Daniel Nall, vice president and regional director of high performance solutions, who will talk about how to make better use of available environmental resources to increase indoor comfort.
PE | Associate, LeMessurier
Vice President, AEW’s Architecture & Engineering group
Interior Designer, Jacobs, Boston
Senior Vice President, Market Transformation and Development U.S. Green Building Council
AIA LEED AP BD+C | Senior Associate, Gensler Boston 
LEED Fellow, WELL AP | Founder and Principal, Ecoworks Studio
LEED AP BD+C | Environmental Sustainability Manager, Armstrong World Industries
Sustainability Director, Steven Winter Associates
Assistant Professor of Exposure Science | Director of the Healthy Buildings program
Managing Director, Harvard University Office for Sustainability
Principal & Director of Certifications and Consulting, Epsten Group, Inc.
Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Jamestown
Founder and Principal, Linnean Solutions | LEED AP, O+M; EcoDistrict AP
Associate Principal, BuroHappold Engineering
Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation
Co-Founder, Facilitator at The Laurentia Project | LEED AP BD+C, LFA
Founder and President, Board of the Healthy Building Network
Building Technology Director, Kingspan North America
LEED® AP ID+C, BD+C, USGBC Faculty, WELL® AP, WELL Faculty and Fitwel Ambassador
Workplace Strategy Expert and Researcher, EYP
Principal, Integrated Ecostrategy
Senior Vice President, International WELL Building Institute
AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP
Principal, Bruner/Cott
Architect, Associate, and Sustainability Design Leader, Stantec Architecture and Engineering
FAIA, LEED Fellow, Long Green Specs
Products & Materials Specialist, BuildingGreen
Director of Acquisitions and Development
Director of Restorative Enterprise, Interface
Vice President of Sustainable Development, Shaw
Sustainability Manager, Consigli Construction Company
Global Head of Sustainability, Superior Essex