Health complaints related to indoor air quality are increasingly common. Hence, it is well known that environmental factors act on the emergence of certain illnesses. Today, many people consider that their health problems are due to a specific building environment. Chemical, microbiological and particulate pollutants are of interest, but only as one category of potential factors. Other risk factors have been identified ranging from the individual's sex and health status to psychosociological issues and buildings characteristics.
The objective of the RESET project was to quantify the savings that could be made by resetting the energy related controls of buildings to their original or optimum settings. The method was to identify a range of office buildings and carry out energy and management audits. Advice was given on incorrectly set controls, and estimates were made of the potential savings if the controls were set correctly. Cost savings of between 10% and 30% were almost always identified and could be made at little or no cost.
Perceived barriers restricting the implementation of natural or simple fan assisted ventilationsystems in the design of new office type buildings and in the refurbishment of existing suchbuildings have been identified in seven central and north European countries with moderate orcold climate: United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden andDenmark.The barriers were identified in an in-depth study with structured interviews based onquestionnaires among leading designers and decision makers: architects, consultant engineers,contractors, developers, owners and governme
NiteCool was developed under the Energy Related Environmental Issues in Buildings(EnREI) DOE Programme and is designed especially for the assessment of a range of nightcooling ventilation strategies. The program is based on a single zone ventilation model and isconfigured to analyse a 10m x 6m x3m cell of an office building. It is intended to be used atthe early stages in the design process to help the designer to make informed decisions on theconstruction, opening configuration and operation of the building.
In France, mechanical cooling is increasingly used in office buildings. This situation isrelated to a demand for a better comfort, the increase of the thermal insulation and internalgains, and the changes in the building design.Nevertheless, in many cases, it is possible to achieve a thermally comfortable environmentby passive means - as thermal inertia, and solar protection of the external envelope - and useof low energy techniques as night or evaporative cooling.
In this paper the potential of night ventilation techniques is investigated. Extended real scalemeasurements have been performed, in three buildings, under free floating and airconditioned operation. Two of the buildings have been studied by using a theoretical modeldeveloped in TRNSYS [1] software. Simulation results have been validated by using themeasured data. Specific studies concerning the indoor air temperature and the cooling load ofthe buildings have been carried out in order to identifj the influence of night ventilationtechniques on the buildings thermal performance.
A difficulty when designing natural ventilation in office buildings is the lack of simple designtools.In order to be able to predict natural ventilation air flow rates and indoor air temperatures atthe design stage, a computer model has been developed within the EU-JOULE projectNatvent (TM). The program is an integrated model with a thermal and an air flow modelcoupled together.
The design of low-energy office buildings requires specific attention to an energy efficient concept for providing good indoor air quality conditions. With this respect, mechanical ventilation shows undeniable advantages: it can be optimally controlled (infrared detection, CO2 control,...), heat recovery is applicable, outdoor noise and pollution penetration can be minimised. Another crucial challenge in low-energy office buildings is avoidance or, if possible, the minimisation of active cooling needs.
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