English

The objective of this study is to develop an approach concerning the integration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions due to office equipment in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, in order to assess the indoor air quality (IAQ) in offices. The transport and diffusion phenomena of VOCs are taking into account in the CFD model by means of conservation equations of the mass fraction, written for each VOC that is intended to be considered in the simulation.

A mass balance model is used to examine the impact of two ventilation (1 /h and 2 /h) and recirculation (7 /h and 14 /h) rates on concentrations, exposure to and intake of ozone (of outdoor origin) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) derived from the ozone initiated chemistry in indoor environment. Measured data from several experimental studies conducted by the authors in a 236m3 field environmental chamber (FEC) configured to simulate an office are used for the mass balance model evaluations.

The trend toward minimizing ventilation of houses in order to reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling leads to an increase in indoor air pollution. The deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) negatively affects human health, safety, productivity and comfort. In order to evaluate the scale of this influence IAQ assessment has to be performed. However, the IAQ itself is not well defined and a number of parameters are considered as its indicators. In this work we compared carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds as indicators of indoor air quality.

The present study aimed at assessing six commercially-available in-duct air cleaning devices which are designed to be mounted in the central ventilation system of offices or commercial buildings. The selected devices use different air cleaning technologies: mechanical filtration, electrostatic precipitation, gas filtration, ionisation / cold plasma, photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) and catalysis under UV light.

Supermarkets are a category of non-domestic buildings with high energy use because of their operation. Recent work indicates that by improvements to the energy delivery systems through which internal environmental conditions are maintained such as thermal properties of external envelope including airtightness, HVAC systems and lighting, substantial energy savings can be achieved. Work to date has focused on typical supermarkets while the present paper examines frozen food supermarkets which include more refrigeration cabinets and therefore result in higher energy use per sales floor area.

People spend more than 80% of their time indoors. In contrast to ambient air, no (legal) limits for indoor particulate matter exist, although there are WHO guidelines. In the Netherlands a measurement protocol to determine the PM2.5 in office buildings has been developed including 5 quality classes. However at the moment no simple guidelines or models are available which can support the design and in-use phases to predict the PM2.5 concentration in office buildings and schools.

This paper presents two case studies of stack driven ventilative cooling systems implemented in kindergarten schools located in the mild Subtropical-Mediterranean climate of Lisbon, Portugal. Both systems rely on stack driven natural ventilation supplemented by a larger, single-sided ventilation opening to be used in the warmer months. In both systems air enters the rooms at a low level, directly in front of the heating passive convector systems, and is exhausted in the back of the room, through a chimney.

Night sky radiative cooling technology using PhotoVoltaic/Thermal panels (PVT) and night time ventilation have been studied both by means of simulations and experiments to evaluate their potential and to validate the created simulation model used to describe it. An experimental setup has been constructed at the Technical University of Denmark, where the outside PVT panels are connected through a storage tank to in-room radiant ceiling panels. The radiant ceiling panels include phase change material (PCM) and embedded pipes for circulating water.

The new initiatives and regulations towards nearly zero energy buildings forces designers to exploit the cooling potential of the climate to reduce the overheating occurrence and to improve thermal comfort indoors. Climate analysis is particularly useful at early design stages to support decision making towards cost-effective passive cooling solution e.g. ventilative cooling.

There is an expanding literature on the value of sustainability features in buildings (European Commission, 2013; World GBC, 2013; World GBC, 2014). While several publications focus on the price differentiation between buildings with sustainability credentials and buildings with no sustainability credentials (Eichholtz et al., 2010; etc.), others examine the costs and benefits of sustainability features individually referring to both monetary and intangible values (Heerwagen, 2000).