Passive Ground Cooling System for Low Energy Buildings in Malaysia (Hot and Humid Climates)

摘要

This paper presents an investigation of Earth Pipe Cooling Technology, conducted in a university campus in Malaysia. It was intended to seek for a passive cooling alternative to air-conditioning. The technology, where the ground was used as a heat sink to produce cooler air, has not been investigated systematically in hot and humid countries. In this work, air and soil temperatures were measured. At 1m underground, the result is most significant, where the soil temperature is 6°C and 9°C lower than the maximum ambient temperature during wet and hot and dry season, respectively. Polyethylene pipes were buried around 1.0m underground and temperature drop between pipe inlet and outlet were compared. A significant temperature drop was found in these pipes: up to 6.4°C and 6.9°C depending on the season of the year. The result shows the potential of Earth Pipe in providing low energy cooling in Malaysia.