Apparently turbine ventilators can reduce attic temps pretty dramatically, which in turn can passively reduce cooling costs by 15%.
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I was expecting this diagram to contain Saddam Hussein
Also bringing humidity down instead of the air temperature helps. -> wet bulb temperature
Reducing humidity by means of ventilation is way easier than reducing the temperature. That’s because air has a really small heat capacity. Fresh/ inbound air is just effortlessly heated up by the walls.
It could help to compress the air outside before venting it inside, maybe. ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vapor-compression_refrigeration
Wikipedia says that about turbine ventilators, but not all of those work passively. I’d assume that a wind-powered vent is not super helpful when there’s very little wind, which where I live is frequently the case when it’s warm outside.
They’re not universally applicable, for sure. They also wouldn’t be viable in colder climates where the extra ventilation and temp reduction would be unwanted in the winter, or could cause pipes the freeze.
But in areas with consistent wind and high temperatures, they appear quite useful.
Though even an electric fan is still way cheaper than AC to run. Though if it’s hot, there’s a good chance a solar panel could drive that fan for free.
There are multiple methods because they work better in some places and not others. Where I live older houses frequently have turbine ventilators and newer roofs have something closer to the earthship style low intake with open vents at the peaks to accomplish the same thing but without the need for maintaining the lubrication.
we call these “canadian wells” here, or air/ground heat exchangers, it’s nothing new
Old things can be interesting. Or new to anyone who didn’t know about them.
Awnings are another old passive cooling method that have dropped off the general knowledge radar in modern times. If I ever get a house instead of a condo where I can’t control the outside of the building, I’d install awnings but only know about why they were used because of another thread that mentioned them.
They don’t teach these things in high school anymore.
