NATURAL AIR COOLING
Bringing fresh air into your home important to keep away stale air which carries microbes that could pose harms to our bodies. In urban areas where lot spaces are smaller and houses are built closely to each other, getting a free flowing fresh air—without mechanical intervention—is a feat. The Philippines is a tropical country so summers are hot and dry thus the typical reaction of people is to turn on their air conditioning system or the electric fans and then suffer paying an expensive electricity bill later. Some provinces even suffer from power outages on due to limited electricity on summer days, so folks would resort to finding good shade under a tree or rely on gentle breeze instead.
Though not entirely a new approach, it is a good thing that construction trend nowadays are more serious in incorporating ‘natural cooling or passive cooling’ in designing houses and buildings. By Wikipedia definition, passive cooling is a building design approach that focuses on heat gain control and heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort with low or no energy consumption. This approach works either by preventing heat from entering the interior or by removing heat from the building.
Prior to construction of a house or a building, designers study various factors in placing windows, doors and vents relative to the location, climate condition, wind direction, sun & shading orientation at different hour and other considerations that will encourage air movement, which are no easy tasks.
Depending on the design, simple passive cooling can be done through tinting windows to deflect heat, shading, or adding ventilation. Developers add more ‘greenery’ through mini-parks in villages and subdivisions, some even add rooftop gardens on buildings. While others utilize cross ventilation by planning where to put small openings (inlet/outlet) that will make hot air to rise once cool air enters the premises. Others use plenty of wide windows and doors strategically placed to capture wind.
This is why when buying a house or even a condo, you must check the background of your designing team and contractor as there are very few good ones that pay attention to good airflow and rely instead on mechanical ventilations.
SOURCES:
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Natural_ventilation_of_buildings
https://www.thecoolingco.com/blog/surprisingly-ancient-natural-air-conditioning-methods
