05 May Slash costs and save lives
A must-have in green building design, solar chimneys can slash energy costs up to 50%. Now research reveals they could also help save lives in a building fire.
In a world-first, researchers designed a solar chimney optimised for both energy saving and fire safety, as part of the sustainable features of a new building in Melbourne, Australia.
Modelling shows the specially-designed solar chimney radically increases the amount of time people have to escape the building during a fire – extending the safe evacuation time from about two minutes to over 14 minutes.