Thermal comfort and energy-efficient cooling

This chapter summarizes key findings and clarifies success factors for low-energy cooling. Furthermore, a holistic approach is proposed for the evaluation of heating and cooling concepts, seeking to achieve a global optimum of interior thermal and humidity comfort, useful cooling-energy use, and the building's total primary-energy use for heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. Under this premise, ambitious planning concepts stand at the crossroads of economic sustainability, legislative restrictions, rising energy costs, the shortage of primary energy sources, and the demand for a high comfort of use. An integral step-by-step approach towards low-energy cooling concepts supports the planner in order to find the best solutions for a specific project. With careful system matching in the first project phase, individual solutions can be relatively easily implemented and the overall concept remains technically manageable.