Thermal comfort and risk of draught with natural ventilation - assessment methods, experiences and solutions

The majority of research and hence the assessment methods and tools for thermal comfort assessment of ventilation systems are not based on findings for natural ventilation solutions and do not take into account the specific characteristics of natural ventilation. This has created a lack of suitable methods for the assessment and performance evaluation of natural ventilation. This paper will focus on the evaluation of assessment methods related to estimating the risk of draught for natural ventilation systems. The key objectives and questions to be addressed are: 1) Is the current Draught Rate method suitable for the evaluation of natural ventilation and are there currently other more appropriate methods for assessing the risk of draught? 2) What are the main findings and experiences until now and to what extent can we use these? Furthermore, examples of solutions for ensuring thermal comfort in cold periods will be presented and their performance discussed based on different performance assessment methods used. This paper will conclude on the status of natural ventilation comfort performance assessment in relation to thermal comfort and the risk of draught.