window opening

Each occupant in a room should be able to control his own indoor environment. Individual control can be achieved in many ways: from simple window-opening to automatically arranged personal mini-environment. Individual control is not utilized effectively today. This is partly caused by lack of proper information, and partly by the fact that builders pay more attention to construction than to use and operation. Even technically complicated systems can be easy to operate - what is needed is sufficient, but not too difficult user information.

The need for reduced energy consumption has led to an overall decrease of air infiltration rates in buildings. particularly in dwellings. Unfortunately. this has given rise to a significant number of problems involving condensation. with resulting damage to the structure and contents of affected buildings. Various means of condensation control are available. The use of a passive ventilation system to achieve this aim has several attractions. not the least of which is that the occupants of houses fitted with such a system need little. if any, knowledge of the principles involved.

This research attempts to offer partial answers as to how and why inhabitants of a rented apartment building behave as they do in aeration. The authors adopted a two-fold approach : first, by using computerised data recording of outdoor and indoor temperatures per room, the number of hours of sunshine, the surface temperature of radiators and the opening of the windows in each room;second, through interviews with the tenants, sometimes filmed, in order to ascertain their behaviour patterns and underlying motivations in ventilation.

An energy efficiency monitoring programme was carried out from 1984 to 1986 by the South London Consortium Energy Group, United Kingdom Department of Energy, with assistance from British Gas, Watson House, as part of a demonstration project funded by the United Kingdom Department of Energy, the EEC and SLC Energy Group. 18 occupied low energy houses were thoroughly instrumented in order to monitor energy usage and occupant hehaviour.

The role of the occupant in buildings energy use has been evident in studies in many countries. Our experience since the early 1970's has indicated that energy use can vary by at least a factor of two solely on how the occupant operates the house or apartment. This often involves window use. For example, window and door openings, to cool an overheated dwelling, can take place at any time of the year. This paper describes work at Princeton which measured occupant ventilation behavior, and which provided feedback in an attempt to modify behavior.

A balanced ventilation system with heat recovery was designed and installed into an 11 storey prefabricated block building. Monitoring of the system operation was accomplished during a year. Operational characteristics, quantified energy saving, indoor climate parameters and the effect of occupants' behaviour on those were determined and analysed. Temperature runs during durable window opening and cooking periods were monitored and on the basis of the results comparison between the new experimental and the traditional reference system was made.

Occupants can significantly influence both the heating energy requirements and the indoor air quality of a building by opening and closing doors and windows. If the effects of these actions are to be accurately estimated, both the quantity and character of these exchange flows must be determined. In this paper, data on gravity-driven exchange rates through open doors obtained from field experiments at the Alberta Home Heating Research Facility are compared with laboratory model simulations and theoretical predictions.

The effects on ventilation behaviour of inhabitants in residential buildings have been investigated as a part within several years' German R and Dprogramme. The investigations have shown that the ventilation behaviour seems to be dominated by traditional behaviour patterns, e.g. ventilating bedrooms, and subjective impressions. There is only a modest correlation between window opening and needs for indoor air quality and energy conservation. Up to nowmost of the inhabitants do not assess correctly their own window opening behaviour.