English

The year-round climate of Taiwan is warm and humid. Apart from the hottest months in summer, there are four months suitable for nocturnal ventilation to acquire indoor cooling. The urban Taiwanese apartments are small due to the limited usable land.

Temperature and cooling demand in a room summertime are influenced by numerous factors,like internal gains, ventilation, solar gain, behaviour of occupants, thermal inertia of the roomand outdoor conditions (climate).The thermal environment and cooling demand summertime are often analysed using detailedcomputer programs, which take into account the factors mentioned above (among others).Often the overview, transparency and some of the physical insight is lost using these advancedcomputer programs.In a predesign phase of a project it is preferable to do simple calculations of the thermalbeha

A method for estimating the reliability of mechanical ventilation systems in dwellings hasbeen developed. The analysis is based on component level reliability models interconnectedby so called fault-tree schemes. A simplified model for maintenance is included. Theanalysis procedure is applied on an central exhaust ventilation system and on a central supplyand exhaust ventilation system with heat recovery. For each system, three different qualitystandards have been defined and combined with three levels of maintenance. Work has alsobeen done on collecting relevant input data, e.g.

The paper outlines the value of roof intake air ducts to serve largely passively ventilatedand cooled buildings in urban areas. This approach improves air quality, reduces noisepollution and enhances security.A diagrammatic representation of night cooling using this approach is given followedby a description of experimental work at the Bartlett.

One of the first sorption-supported air-conditioning systems ("Desiccative Evaporative Cooling Systems") in an industrial building in Germany was installed in a printing office in Waiblingen, a town in southern Germany. The circumstances for such a system showed to be optimal, as the printing office is equipped with its own co-generation system delivering a considerable amount of waste heat. The experiences made with the system in the hot and humid summer of 1995 were very positive.

Natural passive stack ventilation (PSV) consumes no power and so produces no harmfulemissions, has no running cost, no noise of operation, requires little maintenance and becauseit involves no moving parts, operation is reliable. However, virtually all PSV systems aredesigned and constructed without incorporating heat recovery, leading to wasteful heat loss.The goal of the research reported here, is to develop a passive stack ventilation system withheat recovery for use in naturally ventilated buildings.The heat recovery unit is based on the heat-pipe principle.

In the present paper a model for steady-state thermal analysis of ventilated and unventilated light rook is proposed. The aim of the work is tostudy the influence of thermo-physical and geometric parameters of the roof and boundary conditions (solar radiation) on the entering heat flowand the temperature distribution within the roof structure.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to improve the thermal quality of newhomes, most of which are being built in the sunbelt by large building development companies.Low-infiltration production (tract) homes need ventilation systems that satisfy the low-costpriority of the builders as well as the safety, health and low operating cost expectations ofhomeowners.

The performances of self regulating natural ventilation devices (devices of which the openingsection varies as function of the pressure difference across the device) strongly depend on thetype of building and its leakage characteristics. In like manner, the climatic conditionsstrongly impact on the achieved ventilation rates. As a result, it is not possible to express thepotential benefit of self-regulating natural ventilation devices in an unambiguous way. This isnot contributing to a good understanding of the potential of such devices in daily practice.

The concept of 'build tight - ventilate right' requires minimising air infiltration through theenvelope of a building and then providing adequate ventilation in a controlled manner tosatisfy the fresh air requirements of occupants. This paper describes a simple-to-use designtool (PC based and in spreadsheet format) for predicting the airtightness of office buildingenvelopes either at the design stage or before a major refurbishment.