Air flow design for house

Hello,

I will be building a cob/strawbale hybrid and I am in the design stages. I am looking for ways/design ideas to cool the house using air flow. Any books on designing homes that talk about air flow? Recommendations? Thanks in advance!

I seem to remember bumping into an old book on the topic years ago.  It said the obvious.  More windows are better.  Bigger windows are better.  

Our house was design based on airflow.

The builder used windows that opened vertically and when opened the window opens out completely.  The windows were also space equally so the windows were facing each other.

Have you looked into Solar Chimnies and earth tubes?

https://permies.com/t/143626/Solar-Chimney-Earth-Tubes

Designing any type of structure using some of the fundamentals of passive solar will help regulate a buildings temperature. For your home, straw bale will be already be giving you great air flow and insulation, some other things to keep in mind in designing would be the orientation of your home and its windows. A suggestion I have seen in a few strawbale building books is have your house face true south, rather than magnetic south. I believe the difference is small in its efficiency, try to keep the face of your home within 15 degrees of true south.
Focus on having south oriented windows for solar heat gain in the summer, limit windows on the east and west sides of your home. My old home had the majority of its windows on the east and west. I found this to mean the sun had a head start in the morning to start heating the house up on a hot day, and then in the evening the sunset would beam heat right into our living room. This was my family home and it was not designed with anything like passive solar in mind. I am currently building my own home and plan on trellising grape vines over a southern patio, this will help shade my windows in the heat of summer, then in fall when the leaves drop, light and heat will be allowed to enter my home.
Make sure to include thermal mass in your home, working in unison with these windows. Consider the orientation of the sun and how its light will be directed towards your home when installing your overhangs for the bales. Regarding cooling your home, try to place the windows in thoughtful locations to allow the wind to pass through. If you can figure out the average seasonal wind direction for your location, windows can catch these breezes. Another way to make this even more efficient would be planting in a way that creates a corridor for the wind to be caught in and travel through to your window(s). I think these corridors can even help redirect a wind current to a window that perhaps wasn't placed with that intention.

One building book I would recommend is Building Green by Clarke Snell and Tim Callahan. I bought mine used, I'm not sure they are still in print. Big book, not all specifically about strawbale but also includes a lot of other natural building methods. A good reference and inspired some ideas for me.

I would definitely recommend The Strawbale House by Athena Steen, Bill Steen et al. This book really clarified a lot of questions I had about straw bale and cob building. I reference it often. I suggest checking Abe Books for these, I get all of my books from here. They are used, but I always buy a book that's rated as "good condition" and I have never received a book that hasn't looked brand new. They feel like they've never been opened, it saves a print, and I have gotten books there that are $35 new for like 5 bucks. Half the time shipping is free or only a couple dollars.

Indian houses are usually designed for a lot of airflow, and most internal doors have a "ventilator" over them that you can hinge open. It lets you close the door and have at least visual privacy while letting air flow through. Though it does let sound through, so privacy is not perfect, for sure.

My bedroom doesn't have it and I wish it did. Tonight I've got my bedroom door propped open so the cool night air can come in my window and leave out the door to the roof. I wish I had an operable ventilator above my bedroom door.

If you're depending on cross breezes or an updraft of hot air leaving the house through an opening up high in the house, this kind of thing could be very helpful.

Rebecca - I have always heard those called transom windows. I'm planning on installing them in my house.

My current home has the front and back doors directly across from one another, when I open them both I get a lovely cross breeze. In my childhood home, we had clerestory windows. They were extremely helpful in keeping the house cool.

Ah yes, transoms, that's the word!

I agree with Rebecca on looking at traditional designs from hot countries.

You can also look at designs from pre electricity American South. Porches and overhangs that shade in the heat, and windows that open up and down along with a counterpart on the cool side of the house to encourage cross flow of air thru the whole house. High ceilings are also a good idea to cause stratification of the air. Ceilings 9-10’ high.

Stairwells and open areas between floors can be used as chimneys for airflow.

Air towers in the middle east as well.

+1 to investigating the passive solar resources; plenty of design tips in those.

Also, investigate "whole house fans", as the ability to open some doors and windows, flip on the fan, and have cool air brought in is pretty ... well, cool!

While you are investigating passive and active methods for air flow, don't forget fire. By this, I mean plan doors and windows for spaces such that you can close off a fire (starve it of oxygen and slow it down) on your way out. Plan a ventilation hatch in the roof thru to ceiling, such that the house can be ventilated ... saves chopping holes in roofs, which saves firefighters. Plenty of other considerations, including alarms, sprinklers, etc.

Hope this helps ...

perhaps air to ground geothermal?  Could use long snakes of 4" pipe underground to circulate/pull air through.  maybe this system could even be made passive

Sometimes the topic is called ,'natural ventilation in homes'
-air-flow-control-in-buildings
Abstract:
The control of air flow is important for several reasons: to control moisture damage, reduce energy losses, and to ensure occupant comfort and health.
Airflow across the building enclosure is driven by wind pressures, stack effect, and mechanical air handling equipment like fans and furnaces.
A continuous, strong, stiff, durable and air impermeable air barrier system is required between the exterior and conditioned space to control airflow driven by these forces.
Book- Natural Ventilation of Buildings: Theory, Measurement and Design 1st Edition by David Etheridge  
This is a great reference from Australia passive-design/passive-cooling