Natural Ventilation in the Residential Sector in Mexico

Authors:

Ivan Oropeza-Perez

Warm conditions countries such as Mexico need to drive strategies oriented to the cooling of their buildings in order to ensure proper indoor thermal environments towards the occupants. Otherwise, health issues and other hazards could rise up.

When these strategies are passive, i.e. when there is an absence of energy use, and they are applied onto large scale scenarios, an energy planning of the corresponding energy system can be carried out. This is the case of the PhD thesis entitled “The Impact of an Extensive Usage of Controlled Natural Ventilation in the Residential Sector on Large-Scale Energy Systems” by Ivan Oropeza-Perez, where a total saving by using natural ventilation (a passive cooling system) of 4.8 TWh is estimated for the Mexican Housing Sector in 2011.

Using the EnergyPLAN model, this energy saving is reflected at the mitigation of 2.89 million tons of CO₂ or the non-utilization of 12.3 billion m³ of water when a dry season occurs therefore this water is not into the dams.

Furthermore, as the Mexican Energy System is moving to a more Renewable Energy Scenario (RES) (in 2011, 80% of the electricity was generated by fossil fuels; there is the plan, however, that by 2020, 40% of the electricity is generated by renewable energies) the EnergyPLAN model helps to drive the best strategies to optimize the balance between the generation and the demand, taking account of the Electric Cooling Demand (ECD) with and without Natural Ventilation (NV) for each modelling year.

The thesis can be downloaded here.