residential building

Current remedial actions to buildings with indoor-environmental problems do not seem to decrease efficiently residents’ symptoms typical of the sick building syndrome (SBS). Apart from potentially unsuccessful renovations (cases), the cause could be that

This paper is about the application of active stack system to enhance natural ventilation inpublic housing in Singapore. About 86% of the population is staying in high-rise publichousing, known as Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, which is designed fornatural ventilation. The main objective of this work is to assess the status of naturalventilation in a typical 4-room HDB flat using scaled model in the wind tunnel, and todevelop an effective active stack system to enhance natural ventilation in the flat.

The characteristics of the climate in Taiwan are high temperature and humidity. In order to solvethese basic problems in dwellings, a meteorological station was established in Fulong(northeastern part of Taiwan) to document the detailed microclimatic information of indoor andambient environments during 4 years. According to the hydrodynamics and thermal mechanics,the new ventilation strategy was developed with the thermal mass cooling-down systemconstructed as the porous floor in a full-scale climate chamber.

Split system air-conditioning units are commonly employed in residential buildings inthe tropics due to their convenience in terms of energy conservation, aesthetics,flexibility, acoustic performance and ease of operation. This paper presents ourfindings from a recent study of the IAQ and ventilation characteristics in a masterbed-room of a condominium unit in Singapore, employed with a split system airconditioningunit. The attached bathroom is equipped with an exhaust fan, whoseoperation and its impact on the resulting IAQ and ventilation characteristics was alsostudied.

The programme ‘Energy Audit’ has been worked out at the Energy Efficiency Centre of the Institute of Physical Energetics, LAS, and may be used for evaluation of heat losses from buildings and the economic efficiency of measures to be taken for their therm

Existing technical recommendations and standards regarding natural ventilation in Portugalestablish one air change rate, ACH, in main rooms (bedrooms and living rooms) and fourACH in service rooms (kitchens and bathrooms).

In this study, we attempt to investigate the level of indoor air pollution and to evaluate itshealth effects on the subjects exposed to pollution in Beijing. About 270 households (90 perdistrict) were selected randomly from three districts (90 per district), representing theindustrial, old downtown and cultural/educational areas of Beijing. The concentrations ofPM10, PM2.5 and SO2 in indoor air were measured in the bedroom and the kitchen of thesubjects homes.

Characterization of indoor particle sources from 14 residential houses in Brisbane, Australia,was performed. The approximation of PM2.5 and the submicrometre particle numberconcentrations were measured simultaneously for more than 48 h in the kitchen of all thehouses by using a photometer (DustTrak) and a condensation particle counter (CPC),respectively. From the real time indoor particle concentration data and a diary of indooractivities, the indoor particle sources were identified.

Microclimates in moisture chambers and environment in houses were evaluated using afungal index. The index was calculated from the growth rate of a sensor fungus in a test piece,fungal detector, during an exposure period to the test environment. In the constant climates inthe moisture chambers, higher indices were obtained at higher relative humidity. In the roomswith higher fungal indices, the densities of airborne fungi were higher, indicating arelationship between the index and fungal contamination.

A questionnaire on e.g. building characteristics including dampness, and allergic symptomsamong children from 8 918 homes was carried out in the year 2000. 18-24 months later, 6professional inspectors visited 390 of the homes and made inspections and measurements.Questionnaire reports on building characteristics, type of ventilation system, and buildingmaterials were in good agreement with observations from the inspectors (K=0.68-0.87). Individualkappa-values for the inspectors varied in the range of 0.33-0.96.