The purpose of this paper is to discuss the performance of air distribution systems intended for dilution of contaminants (e.g. mixing ventilation) and those intended for delivery of clean air to local regions within rooms (e.g. personalized ventilation). We first start by distinguishing the systems by their visiting frequency behaviour. Then, the performance of the systems with respect to their possibility to influence contaminant concentration in the room or regions within the room is dealt with. Dilution capacity concept for mixing systems is discussed, and delivery capacity concept for systems intended to deliver clean air locally is introduced. Various ways for supply of clean air to regions within the room are presented and their pros and cons are discussed. In delivery capacity systems, the most important single parameter is the entrainment of ambient air into the primary supply flow. Therefore, methods of determining entrainment in these systems need to be defined and the results should be included when describing the performance of the air terminal devices.

Steady indoor environments are perceived poor at high temperatures and require a high energy input to cool to comfortable operative temperatures. The introduction of airflow variations in such environments improves occupant perception and is shown to be far more energy efficient than cooling the entire space as only the occupants’ are cooled. However, with this method the risk of draft is high and use of velocity variations reduces the risk. This paper discusses and compares two occupant cooling methods in a classroom setup. Cooling by reducing the room temperature and enhanced convective cooling with intermittent air velocities. The experiments were performed in a full scale mockup classroom with a total of 85 student-participants. In study 1, participants sat in a classroom for about 60 min, in one of two temperature conditions: 20℃ and 25℃. In study 2, all participants sat in a room with a temperature of 25℃, but airflow variation in the sitting zone was manipulated. In both studies, the participants performed various tasks and answered questionnaires on their perception of the indoor climate. As shown here, higher classroom temperature deteriorates human perception of the indoor climate, and the use of intermittent air velocities improves the perception of indoor climate just like cooling by reducing the room air temperature. The results reveal that convective cooling can effectively be used as an energy efficient method of cooling in school environments.

In hot climates, such as sub-Sahara Africa, window sizing and orientation pose challenges as they add, through solar insolation, to the building cooling energy demand and thus the cause of indoor overheating risk. This risk can be reduced through passive building-design-integrated measures, e.g., optimizing the window size, orientation and solar shading strategies. Through an IDA-ICE building performance simulation tool, the current study explores the impact of window size, optimization and building-integrated PV panels as shading strategies on cooling energy demands in three cities (Niamey, Nairobi and Harare) in sub-Sahara Africa. Results show that thermal comfort and cooling energy demand are sensitive to a window-to-wall ratio (WWR) > 70%, while the need for artificial lighting is negligible for a WWR > 50%, particularly in the north for cities in the Southern hemisphere and the south in the Northern hemisphere. A WWR > 70% in the east and west should be avoided unless shading devices are incorporated. Internal blinds perform better in improving occupant thermal comfort but increase artificial lighting while integrating PV panels, as external shading overhangs reduce cooling energy but also produce energy that can be utilized for building services, such as air conditioning. In this study, the results and implications of the optimization of window size, orientation and building-integrated shading and operation are discussed.

The performance of three different confluent jets ventilation (CJV) supply devices was evaluated in a classroom environment concerning thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy efficiency. The CJV supply devices have the acronyms: high-momentum confluent jets (HMCJ), low-momentum confluent jets (LMCJ) and low-momentum confluent jets modified by varying airflow direction (LMCJ-M). A mixing ventilation (MV) slot jet (SJ) supply device was used as a benchmark. Comparisons were made with identical set-up conditions in five cases with different supply temperatures (T_S) (16–18 °C), airflow rates (2.2–6.3 ACH) and heat loads (17–47 W/m²). Performances were evaluated based on DR (draft rating), PMV (predicted mean vote), ACE (air change effectiveness) and heat removal effectiveness (HRE). The results show that CJV had higher HRE and IAQ than MV and LMCJ/LMCJ-M had higher ACE than HMCJ. The main effects of lower T_s were higher velocities, DR (HMCJ particularly) and HRE in the occupied zone as well as lower temperatures and PMV-values. HMCJ and LMCJ produce MV conditions at lower airflow rates (<4.2 ACH) and non-uniform conditions at higher airflow rates. LMCJ-M had 7% higher HRE than the other CJV supply devices and produced non-uniform conditions at lower airflow rates (<3.3 ACH). The non-uniform conditions resulted in LMCJ-M having the highest energy efficiency of all devices.