Designing for people: what do building occupants really want?

Modern buildings’ environmental impacts threaten global environmental health. Population growth and increased access to and use of current building technology are not sustainable. People are often not in control of their building environments and, as a re

Ventilation in dutch houses, a study in a representative sample of the dutch housing stock

The goal of this study was the determination of the existing situation in houses with regard to air quality and energy used for ventilation in relation to the health of inhabitants. For the energy policy the Government is considering increased energy requirements for dwellings. They are permanently opposed in doing so by people who are concerned about negative health effect due to increased requirements on for instance air tightness of buildings. To have at least a reference point, they are interested in the existing situation.

Two strategies for containing moisture migration

For the building team, the design of library, archives and museum facilities brings with it special responsibilities. Archive and conservation facilities require the highest levels of preservation and maintenance of the building environment. Understanding how to maintain and preserve vulnerable materials is a key component to developing a successful design solution.

Simulations of indoor air quality and ventilation impacts of demand controlled ventilation in commercial and institutional buildings

Carbon-dioxide (CO2) based demand controlled ventilation (DCV) offers the potential for moreenergy efficient building ventilation compared with constant ventilation rates based on designoccupancy. A number of questions related to CO2 DCV exist regarding energy benefits, optimalcontrol strategies, and indoor air quality impacts for contaminants with source strengths that areindependent of the number of occupants. In order to obtain insight into these issues, a simulationstudy was performed in six commercial and institutional building spaces.

Indoor air quality in retrofitting educational buildings

For historical and demographical reasons, in many European countries, an important part of educational building must be retrofitted. These retrofitting must be carried out in a context of reduction of greenhouse emissions and energy consumption.Among different targets for retrofitting, there are the improvement of indoor environment. In fact, educational buildings are particularly vulnerable to indoor environment problems. Studies have indicated a correlation between the way educational buildings are designed, or retrofitted, and student performance.

Impact of residential natural ventilation and air-tightness techniques on the energy loss and indoor air quality

To better quantify the impact of different window opening models in comparison to ventilation techniques a multizone ventilation model, incorporating the CO2-production of the inhabitants, was developed, using Comis-Transys. The reference model represents a free-standing dwelling in which infiltration is the only source of fresh air. Through a series of simulations natural ventilation systems (standard, user controlled or CO2-based demandcontrolled), air-tightness techniques and/or window opening models (deterministic or stochastic) are added.

Assessment and description of humidity controlled system in french residential buildings

In France, ventilation in new residential buildings must be designed and dimensioned according to the Health regulation (Arrêté du 24 mars 1982) which is basically based on required extract air flow rates. Two points are to be noticed : 1) The extract flo

Energy efficiency and IAQ - Simultaneous improvements in relocatable classrooms.

The aim of that study was to demonstrate the potential to design buildings that can simultaneously improve indoor environmental quality along with a reduction of energy. In that order 4 energy-efficient relocatable classrooms were designed and constructed, each equipped with two different HVAC systems (heat-pump air-conditioning system and an energy-efficient indirect/direct evaporative cooler). Results are presented.

Truth and myth about IAQ

In this one-page paper the author points out the misinformation related to IAQ. He gives a liste of myths and truths about it.

Sick building syndrome : indoor quality and performance implications

Findings about sick building syndrome in Sydney’s offices are presented. The aim is to ascertain whether perceptions of sick building syndrome in offices impact on discrete aspects of workplace performance and management. One hundred offices in the Sydney

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