Building heating and cooling

It was not until the 20th century, however, that passive techniques were seriously studied and quantified. Active solar heating systems are quite recent, but for most of Australia the heating requirement is not sufficient to justify the installation of expensive equipment. The trend is to adopt passive solar principles in house design, demanding little or no extra investment, often labelled as 'energy-conscious' rather than 'solar'. The Journal Solar Progress published by the ANZ Section of ISES has described fifty such houses. One problem is that it is very difficult to assess their performance in the absence of elaborate instrumentation. The informative report by CSIRO on their low energy house at Highett, illustrates this point.

An unusual application of passive principles is the provision of relatively cool stable conditions for telecommunications equipment at hot remote sites. Telecom Australia has developed special buildings for this purpose, such as underground chambers and even shelters with chimneys which, surprisingly, collect the sun's energy and assist in heat removal from the equipment.

In Australia, keeping comfortably cool has always been more of a problem than keeping warm, but solar air conditioning for residences is not yet an economic proposition, despite the pioneering work at the University of Queensland in the 1960s. Some large solar air conditioning systems are in operation in public buildings, one at the Townsville office of the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction, and another at the Dandenong office of the Victorian Gas and Fuel Corporation. It is generally accepted, however, that while they are technically satisfactory, their economic justification will require an increase in energy costs.

Full air conditioning has become the norm for large office buildings and room air conditioners are common in motels and some residences but operating costs are high. It is not surprising therefore that evaporative coolers, ceiling fans and portable fans have become increasingly popular, due to their low installation and running costs.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering