office buildings

Naturally ventilated (NV) buildings, when well designed and operated, can provide adequate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) while reducing the building energy demand. However, in dusty outdoor air, this ventilation technique may increase the penetration of outdoor particulate matter (PM) indoors, leading to adverse health effects. Given the increasing frequency of outdoor dust episodes in Mediterranean climates, an important research question is whether NV buildings can provide adequate indoor air quality (IAQ) during increased outdoor air dust episodes.

This study investigates the impact of lowering temperature setpoints on occupants' thermal comfort in office buildings, prompted by government initiatives in Europe, including the Netherlands, to reduce energy consumption. The research methodology involved a case study conducted in three office buildings in The Netherlands. Data on occupants' perception, motivation, clothing thermal insulation, activity level, discomfort, and thermal control options were collected through interviews conducted for thermal comfort surveys and building surveys.

Office buildings are significant contributors to energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, and it is obvious that office building occupants and their behavior play an essential role in building energy performance. However, how buildings, respectively, their indoor environment, influence building occupant´s behavior, wellbeing, and productivity is not so clear and easy to predict. The main problem is that this correlation is very subjective and influenced by many factors.

Natural ventilation has the potential to provide cooling and fresh air and cut 40% of the total energy consumption of European office buildings. While in the milder seasons natural ventilation is an obvious low-energy choice, if poorly designed it can cause overheating in summer and poor air quality in winter. In order to promote the use and design of naturally ventilated (NV) buildings, it is therefore important to understand how current NV buildings perform in terms of thermal comfort and indoor air quality.

Mixed-Mode ventilation is an innovative approach that maximizes the use of natural ventilation and uses supplementary mechanical cooling only when strictly required. The application of Mixed-Mode ventilation in severe arid climates and its integration with other passive cooling strategies is very challenging and has not been systematically studied. The paper will present an evaluation of the performance of different Mixed-Mode cooling strategies for a single-zone office space in four main arid cities that represent the diversity in arid climates.

Office buildings in Chile show higher cooling than heating energy demand. The climate of the country show important differences between cities by the ocean and those of interior regions, located between the coastal and the Andes range. Main cities of Central Chile, where more than 40% of buildings are constructed every year are Santiago and Valparaíso, both located at around 33° S. Santiago presents a Mediterranean climate, with a high temperature oscillation between day and night during cooling period.

This paper analyses the energy efficiency of a Ventilated Active Façade (VAF) applied to office buildings in Spain in comparison with conventional façades that comply with the minimum energy requirements of the Spanish Technical Building Regulation (Código Técnico de la Edificación - CTE). The analysis considers the climatic diversity of the 12 climatic zones of Spain. The studied VAF consists of an outer layer element of 2 mm galvanized steel panels and a 3 cm air cavity through which the ventilation air is preheated in winter and exhausted in summer.

Air conditioning in offices has become current practice in North Western Europe. Main reasons are thehigh internal loads and solar gains. That move away from the heated, naturally ventilated cellularoffice increased comfort complaints.Two cases are presented, confronting enquiry results with measurements. In both, the enquiries gavea number of dissatisfied at the noted mean vote much higher than the standard PMV/PPD curvesuggests. Measurements in turn showed that only in one of the two case complaints could beexpected.

This paper aims to advance the knowledge related to the simulation of electrochromic glazing switching control. First, a critical evaluation of existing control strategies currently available in the DOE-2.1E program was performed to study the effect of several driving variables on the cooling load of an existing large office building. Second, the present capabilities of the DOE-2.1E program were expanded using the Functional Values approach which enables the user to introduce new algorithms (e.g., control strategies) without recompiling the program.

Being the largest energy consumer, building sector represents a major stake for the actualenvironmental concerns. So far, building thermal comfort standards are based on static models thatdont account for the interaction between occupants and their living places. The adaptive approach of the thermal comfort has the advantage to be more comprehensive and realistic, and its application would result in energy saving in buildings. Recently, an Adaptive Control Algorithm ACA and an Adaptive Comfort Standard ACS have been developed on the adaptive approach.