Performance monitoring of a naturally ventilated city centre library

In order to reduce carbon emissions to tackle climate change, it is becoming increasingly important to improve energy efficiency through more intelligent and sustainable building design. This paper describes the design and environmental performance of the Lanchester Library at Coventry University, which opened in September 2000 and incorporates natural ventilation, daylighting and passive cooling strategies. Computer simulations used in the design phase demonstrated that comfortable indoor conditions could be maintained with a natural ventilation strategy which uses lightwells and perimeter stacks to supply and exhaust air, and careful control of solar gains and night time cooling, avoiding the use of air conditioning or mechanical ventilation. This paper uses data from the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) to assess how well the building is performing 5 years on. Temperature, CO2 and energy consumption data are used to give indications of building performance, and for comparison with the original design criteria and good practice guidelines. The data indicate that comfortable thermal conditions and a sufficient supply of fresh air are maintained in the library throughout the year and that it consumes 50% less energy than a standard air conditioned building.