A new design of wind tower for passive ventilation in buildings to reduce energy consumption in windy regions

In today's world, the significance of energy and energy conservation is a common knowledge. Wind towers can save the electrical energy used to provide thermal comfort during the warm months of the year, especially during the peak hours. In this paper, we propose a new design for wind towers. The proposed wind towers are installed on top of the buildings, in the direction of the maximum wind speed in the region. If the desired wind speed is accessible in several directions, additional wind towers can be installed in several positions. The proposed wind tower can also rotate and set itself in the direction of the maximum wind speed. In the regions where the wind speed is low, to improve the efficiency of the system a solar chimney or a one-sided wind tower can be installed in another part of the building in the opposite direction. Using transparent materials in the manufacturing of the proposed wind towers improves the use of natural light inside the building. The major advantage of wind towers is that they are passive systems requiring no energy for operation. Also, wind towers reduce electrical energy consumption and environmental pollution. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license