refurbishment

This article describes a ventilation system, developed within the framework of aEuropean project supported by the JOULE III programme (NAVAIR project). Theconcept used - natural ventilation assisted by air induction combines the advantages ofnatural ventilation and the performances of mechanical ventilation.

A case study of the ventilation characteristics of office accommodation forming part of a recently refurbished building is presented. A mechanical system has been installed to ventilate and cool two floors that are interconnected by a series of atria, with a novel application of displacement ventilation applied where there is a very low ceiling height. The air distribution and air quality within the space have been studied by the application of computational fluid dynamics (cFD) to allow the computation of air change effectiveness in terms of local mean age.

Many existing offices either overheat in the summer or use excessive amounts of energy to maintain acceptable temperatures. The reasons are increasing internal heat gains from office IT equipment, poor efficiency lighting systems, density of staff and original poor building design causing excessive solar gains. The trend is for problem offices to have AC systems replaced - at the end of the life of the existing services - or installed in previously naturally ventilated offices when refurbishment occurs.

The Manchester Project involved the energy efficient rehabilitation and retrofitting of existing housing units plus the construction on vacant lots of new dwellings incorporating energy conservation measures. This project, in the Manchester neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began inthe late 19 70s and was completed in 1983. Energy use and air quality monitoring were carried out for one year after the completion of the project. It was found that in comparison to detached single-family houses using standard construction, energy savings of 75 to 80% were being realized.

Ekoporten, a block of flats converted into an experimental sustainable building, is now 2+1/2 years old. The building is one of the most visited and debated projects carried out in Sweden in recent years. With the support of the Swedish Council for Building Research, researchers from the Faculty of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH) have followed up and documented the experiment.

lsrael not unlike other Mediterranean country , experienced a housing construction boom in the 1950s and 1960s. Many projects from that period are currently undergoing renovation and refurbishment. This study reviewed the thermal characteristics of such projects and evaluated the current refurbishment practices vis-a- vis a combined effort including retrofit. Different solutions for a specific case study were evaluated.