English

A high resolution particle-imaging velocimetry has been developed and applied to study full-scale room air flows. The system is designed to study local field quantities in occupied zones (microclimate), ventilation effectiveness, and airborne pollutant transport in the indoor environment. The system can be applied to evaluate indoor environment in typical commercial and residential settings. The technique and instrumentation have been applied successfully to study localized air flow patterns and particle concentration distribution in the indoor environment.

With effect from January 1st, 1995 the amended Heat Transfer Barrier Act (,,Warmeschutzverordnung ) was introduced in the Federal Republic of Germany, replacing the 1982 version. This decree is binding on all houses to be built so that they reach the low energy standard. Former decrees envisaged mainly the reduction of the transmission heat loss while the amended version takes into account all other relevant aspects such as internal and solar heat gains as well as ventilation heat losses, and includes them into an energy balance procedure.

Especially in modern buildings with small capacity of humidity storage it is necessary to reduce the humidity in the supply air. Normally a refrigeration system containing CFC s is used. There are some alternative fluids available, but mostly they show a high global warming potential. These systems all need electrical energy to be driven and therefore it is necessary to consider other possibilities with alternative systems. The most promising systems are sorptive systems which are used in open cycles.

The C-2000 program for advances commercial buildings is an awards program to assist in the development of energy efficient and sustainable building technologies and design in Canada. The objectives of the C-2000 program are to develop energy efficient buildings using sustainable materials and technologies. The buildings must provide a high level of occupant comfort. The technology must be transferable to the current building industry and must meet market constraints.

By means of a case study involving a severe case of coupled heat and sir flow in buildings, this paper aims to quantify the differences resulting from different methods (ping-pong and onion approach) for linking heat and air flow models. The main conclusion is that when used improperly, the onion method will have implications in terms of computing resources, but - more seriously - the ping-pong method may generate substantial errors.

The Dutch E novation program is a national demonstration program in which dwellings with high energy consumption, moisture and mould problems and poor indoor air quality were renovated, with special attention to the selection of the heating and ventilation systems, thermal insulation and the building physical details. A number of indoor air quality parameters were monitored before and after renovation, showing an important improvement in the indoor air quality.

Three different examples illustrate the possibilities offered by the use of tracer gas methods for detailed airborne moisture transport studies in building. The first one concerns an individual dwelling with severe condensation problems, the second one gives an example of statistical data collection of humidity related parameters in 18 apartments and the last one focuses on the evaluation of the amount of water evaporating from the building materials of a recently built low energy dwelling and on the energy consumption required for drying the construction.

Thirty-one independent fan pressurization measurement series were performed on seven apartments in three family housing buildings at Fort Riley, Kansas, using four protocols. The tests followed procedures in new or revised fan pressurization standards by the International Standards Organization (ISO), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB). In addition, the effect of interzonal flow was considered. The three standards gave similar results.

This paper describes a method which aims to generate an overall view of multizone building air flow by integrating methods for bulk air flow analysis, air flow field analysis, and building thermal analysis. This has been achieved by implementing a computational fluid dynamics approach within the ESP-r building energy simulation environment which already incorporated a model air flow network approach. The current state of the method is demonstrated by a case study. The main conclusion from this is that the integrated method is very promising.

Approved Document (AD Part F1) of the Building Regulations [1] for England and Wales identifies trickle ventilators as an option for providing natural background ventilation in commercial buildings. This paper reports the results of a field measurement study carried out at BRE during the winter of 1994/95 to assess the effectiveness of trickle ventilators. Two occupied office rooms were equipped with trickle ventilators and measurements were carried out for a fortnight period in each office, with the ventilators closed during the first week followed by a week with them open.