(Background) (Methodology) (Building Results) (Model Results) (Conclusion) (References).

Final Conclusions

Figure 17: Waverley Mansion

Sir Charles Pond incorporated many passive cooling design techniques into his design for Waverley Mansion, in West Point, Mississippi. Since its construction in 1852, however, Waverley has undergone many changes including windows that no longer open. Despite these changes, it was suggested that Waverley's diversity (incorporation of many passive design solutions) insures its survival. Specifically, it was hypothesized that Waverley Mansion continues to successfully cool itself passively using the four-story atrium to increase indoor air movement via the stack effect. The hypothesis was tested in two ways. One set of tests was performed on the building itself, and another set of tests was performed on a model of Waverley.

Tests which were performed on the building itself did not successfully confirm the hypothesis. They showed that there is a temperature change from the bottom to the top of Waverley's 52 foot atrium, but provided no evidence that thermal buoyancy was generating air movement in the vertical direction. The results showed that cross ventilation played a larger role in passively cooling Waverley than did stack effect. The tests which were performed on the model provided further evidence in favor of cross ventilation over stack effect. The model and building responded in similar ways to the set of test conditions, despite the uniform temperature in the model's 26 inch atrium.

After reviewing all of the evidence gathered, it was concluded that Waverley Mansion continues to successfully cool itself passively using cross ventilation.

Recommendations

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Created: 04/08/97
Revised: 09/09/02

http://www-archfp.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/workup/waverly/waver_conc.html