MEASSUREMENTS
Earth tube performance - April 2021
Hazendal Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa
The owners at Hazendal Wine Estate constructed a car pavilion to house their collection of vintage cars. As it is an exhibition space for guests, the pavilion is fully glazed with highly transparent glazing. In a warm climate like Stellenbosch, this posed an interesting design challenge. Computer simulations indicated that the predicted indoor air temperature would regularly exceed 40°C.
Climetric suggested a network of earth tubes, cast into the concrete slab of the building. Fresh air is then circulated through the earth tubes, and cooled using the stable ground temperature, before being introduced into the space through hidden floor grills.
Temperature measurements taken in April indicated that the earth tubes cooled down the fresh air by as much as 7°C, maintaining a stable supply air temperature of around 24°C, keeping the space comfortable for transient visitors.
Climetric plans to return to take measurements again in February, when even greater earth tube temperature reductions are anticipated.
