Quality assurance for building envelope air barrier systems.

Discusses what benefits there may be in employing an effective quality assurance program for building envelope air barrier systems, and what elements it should include. Proposes a protocol for inspection and testing of building envelope air barrier systems. Cites literature to highlight how testing has been shown to improve a building's air permeance.

Evaluating the thermal performance of active envelopes.

In situ measurements were compared with a numerical model to assess the effectiveness of the model for active envelopes as energy efficient building envelope solutions. There was good agreement for the mechanical flow active envelope, but not for the natural flow variant. States that taking into account the enthalpy change of the cavity air is essential for a correct evaluation of the energy efficiency of active envelopes.

Multicriteria interactive tool to sketch the building envelope during first stages of architectural design.

Illustrates a procedure to optimise the building envelope during the early design stages, in respect to costs, construction and use and energy performance improvements. The tool is aimed at project authors and client. Of the tool's two linked modules, the first manages parameters for the project requirements, and the second, a graphics module, enables sketches and calculations for input to the first module.

Retrofitting methods to evaluate energy consumption in existing buildings with few data. Application with a commercial building in Lyon.

Evaluates simple methods for the prediction of energy consumption or fault detection as a result of old equipment in a commercial building in Lyon, France. The correlation between electricity consumption and external temperature was analysed.

Automatic tools for fault detection and diagnostic of HVAC systems for hotel and office building.

Faults and malfunctions in HVAC systems can be difficult to detect with current tools. The survey developed automatic faults detection diagnostic tools for the improvement of buildings facilities supervision.

Displacement ventilation application for hot and humid climate.

Discusses the possible use of displacement ventilation systems in warmer climates.

The optimisation of operation of HVAC-systems in industrial buildings based on results of energy audit.

Analyses the operation and life cycle costs of industrial buildings using an energy and environmental auditing process. The results will be used in the design of optimized HVAC systems for the future.

A proposed test procedure for separating exterior envelope air leakage from interior partition air leakage.

Describes a new airtightness test procedure for testing a single zone within a multizone building. The technique enables the measurement of partition leakage so that it can be subtracted from the overall zone leakage.

Cancelled record

A modelling study of ventilation in manufactured houses.

US standards for manufactured homes are designed to provide adequate outdoor air supply for the buildings. COMTAM96 was used to simulate one of the buildings under different ventilation situations. Ventilation rates and energy consumption were assess in annual simulations in three cities. On the basis of the results, recommendations are made for changes to the standards.

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