Experimental study of the cooling performance of a ventilated wall

Abstract

Ventilated wall structures can contribute to energy saving in the building sector. This article presents a study of the cooling performance of a ventilated wall component. The ventilated wall component was constructed in actual scale and tested under real weather conditions (summer) in an outdoor test cell. The testing configuration comprised the recording of the thermal behaviour of the ventilated wall with a fixed air gap width and with the addition of a radiant barrier. Several variations in the basic configuration were also tested, namely, different air inlet and outlet areas, the use of natural and mechanical ventilation on the air gap and the use of floating and controlled room air temperature regimes. The results demonstrated that the application of this technique reduces the cooling load of a building. Especially, a ventilated wall equipped with a radiant barrier and a mechanically ventilated air gap provided with the most beneficial results.