Country: Greece (GRC)
The joint 3rd Palenc, 5th EPIC and 1st Cool Roofs Conference focus on the application of passive cooling techniques in the urban environment and in buildings with emphasis on heat mitigation techniques.
During the last 25 years, a serious deterioration of the thermal conditions in the urban environment has been documented. Cities increase their temperature because of the heat island and the global climatic change. Peak electricity used for cooling purposes is increasing seriously while spells of high discomfort conditions are more frequent. In parallel, the increase of the living standards, and non-appropriate architecture design of buildings and urban spaces, has caused a very important penetration of air conditioning in many parts of the world and in particular in zones of hot climates. Low income population seems to be the first victim of this significant climatic change suffering from very high indoor temperatures that put a serious risk in their life.
Intensive research carried out during the last years has permitted to develop new technologies, components, materials and techniques that permit to decrease ambient temperature in cities, improve outdoor comfort and decrease seriously or even eliminate the cooling demand of buildings. Many examples of bioclimatic urban areas have been developed and monitored while very low energy consumption for cooling new generation buildings have been realized and monitored.
The development of cool materials for buildings and urban areas offers a serious instrument to cool down buildings and improve urban microclimates. Cool roofs provide an excellent technique to decrease the cooling load of buildings and improve summer comfort. The European founded COOL ROOF project financed by EACI, as well as the creation of the European Cool Roof Council have promoted seriously the subject in Europe, while in US the issue has gained tremendous acceptance.
The scope of this Conference includes all aspects of technology related to urban and building design, dealing with passive cooling techniques able to improve the environmental performance of urban spaces and buildings. Papers related on urban microclimate ventilation, solar control, thermal mass, thermal comfort, landscaping, cool roofs, low energy architecture, innovative components and materials, standardization and legislation, advanced and alternative air conditioners, demand side management, etc. are welcome.
The main aims are to present and discuss the state of the art of research and applications dealing with application and research on passive cooling technologies for urban areas and buildings.