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A key aspect of achieving acceptable indoor air quality is source control. Cooking has been recognized as a significant source of pollutants for health impacts (e.g., PM2.5 and NO2) as well as moisture and odour. A common method of controlling this pollutant source is by using a range (or cooker) hood that vents to outside. However, field and laboratory experiments have shown highly variable performance for these devices. We use the capture efficiency metric (the fraction of the pollutants that are exhausted to outside at steady state) to characterize the range hood performance.

Last years, interest in airtightness increases among all construction fields and airtightness becomes a major issue in the reduction of energy consumption in buildings. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding of air displacements through weak spots in buildings (airpaths). Firstly we develop first the concept of Potential Improvement Graph (PIG chart). These graphs represent the “improvement curves” of a given airpath (airflow indicator against airpath parameter). As an airpath can have multiple significant parameters, PIG charts can be n-dimension graphs.

Nowadays, due to the higher energy performance of dwellings, ventilation plays an increasing role in maintaining a good indoor comfort. Therefore new ventilation strategies in combination with demand controlled ventilation are needed to accomplish high energy-efficient ventilation (limiting ventilation losses and auxiliary energy consumption) while providing good indoor air quality, thermal and acoustic comfort.

Night ventilation is used extensively as a low energy strategy to cool buildings in climates where night temperatures are suitable. It can be used for spaces utilising natural or mechanical ventilation systems as well as active refrigerant cooling. Most published work focuses on domestic and relatively simple in operation commercial buildings such as offices. This paper presents a study of the cooling benefits of night ventilation for frozen food supermarkets with high cooling demand.

A “heat recovery hybrid ventilation system” is the combination of passive stack ventilation and mechanical push-pull ventilation. Two heat storage boxes are connected to the natural EA stack and the underfloor natural OA duct. The alternation is done periodically in a way of that the outdoor air is drawn through one of 2 boxes contains earth tiles and the indoor air is exhausted through the other box.

Shopping centres are complex buildings with specific needs. The use that different areas are put to affects energy consumption, whereas the different functional patterns and stakeholder groups influence energy use. They are also associated with specific requirements that make it relevant to consider different types of performance indicators.

In France, the current regulation on the energy performance of buildings (RT 2012) does not require ductwork airtightness measurement when the default-value is used in the regulatory EP-calculation. Thus, measurements are only mandated when a specific airtightness level is used in EP-calculations or required by a voluntary certification scheme. In such case, measurements have to be performed according to a national scheme regarding ductwork airtightness measurement.

With the goal of increasing building flexibility and reducing energy use, yet ensuring IAQ, the feasibility of natural ventilation in a building in Oslo is studied. However, the use of direct outdoor air poses some challenges in the Norwegian cold climate, particularly the risk of thermal discomfort due to draught and low local temperatures. The goal of this paper is to study the most suitable solution to avoid draught in cold climates while maintaining the required airflow rates.

Today one out of six Europeans (84 million Europeans, or the equivalent of Germany’s population), report deficiencies regarding the building status. In some countries, that number is as high as one out of three. This puts these buildings in the ‘Unhealthy Buildings’ category, which is defined as buildings that have damp (leaking roof or damp floor, walls or foundation), a lack of daylight, inadequate heating during the winter or overheating problems.

Based on a series of workshops, a Circadian House is defined as a house that is designed to support a healthy life for its occupants through a human-centric design. The workshops were held in 2012-2013 and defined 3 key principles and ten key factors to consider in the design of homes.