English

AMA (General material and workmanship specifications) has been used in Sweden for more than sixty years. The different parts of AMA are used as reference documents in technical specifications. Between 90 and 95% of all building projects in Sweden refer to AMA in the contract documents.

Since 2006, there has been a significant reward in the French energy regulations for good airtightness, which has been combined with a minimum requirement for residential buildings in the 2012 version of the regulation. Airtightness test results show that the average building airtightness performance has improved by nearly 50% in single- and multi-family buildings since 2006 and now stabilises below the minimum requirements around q50 = 2.8 m³/h per m² of envelope area, excluding lowest floor (or about n50 = 1.8 h^-1).

Regulatory compliance checks on samples of residential ventilation systems are operational in France. The analysis of their results shows a significant rate of non-compliance with the ventilation regulation (rate on the order of 50%).

Fact sheet #03 describes a voluntary scheme defining the data to be announced in the product documentation. The scheme has been launched in 2012 by Uniclima, the French association of ventilation product manufacturers. It ensures that product characteristics are provided under a harmonised form (same physical quantity, unit and assessment method), and facilitates access to relevant input data for the energy performance calculation of a building. The scheme contributes to enhancing the compliance of published data.

Fact sheet #01 describes how a quality management scheme has been introduced in the French energy regulation to encourage professionals to question their current practice and find effective solutions to improve building airtightness. The scheme allows successful applicants (mostly builders of single-family dwellings) to justify for a given airtightness level without systematic third-party testing. The fact sheet details the basic principles of the approach as well as the requirements applicants have to fulfil.

This report summarises the outcome of the work of the initial working phase of IEA ECB Annex 62 Ventilative Cooling and is based on the findings in the participating countries.

This guide, released by the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), is a literature review of recent research on indoor air quality that is relevant to New Zealand’s indoor environments (residential houses, schools, preschools and age care facilities). The document looks at the health effects, the pollutants and the building characteristics. Where possible, New Zealand research is presented. Emphasis is placed on gaps in the knowledge in order to identify future research in New Zealand.

Welcome to the 'Blue Pages'. This is where the Editorial Advisory Panel for Building Services Engineering Research and Technology publishes state-of-the-art articles on developments in building services engineering practice and research. The articles are very short, on one theme of current interest, and are edited by a guest editor rather than going through the longer refereeing process for conventional research papers. This is to encourage consultants and contractors to discuss their latest developments in a non-commercial manner.

The tenth issue of the AIVC newsletter, released in September 2016 . Contents include:

The Proceedings of the 36th AIVC Conference " Effective ventilation in high performance buildings", held in Madrid, Spain, 23-24 September 2015.