English

Phil Dolley of ETSU reports on research aimed at reducing energy consumption through carefully considered building design.

Although the great majority of British dwellings are heated by individual gas systems, there are some instances, particularly in blocks of flats and retirement homes, where individual gas appliances cannot be specified. In these buildings the alternative to individual systems is a group heating scheme whereby a central boiler plant supplies hot water to each flat for heating and domestic hot water. In the past, group heating systems have not always been successful. Comparative results show that energy use of group heating systems is, on average, 50% higher than that of individual systems.

Unique air flow windows and dual air-conditioning systems provide occupant comfort and energy conservation.

This Home Energy classic, originally printed in 1986, explains a simple way to take one air infiltration measurement and determine a home's average air infiltration rate.

You have been using HOT2000 to determine if house designs meet the R-2000 energy target and have always believed that it does a good job. One day you decide to model your own home and compare the results to the utility bills. You find that the predicted and measured energy usage differs by a significant amount! Does this sound familiar? What's going on? Why the difference? Does this mean the utility meters are no good (unlikely); that you don't know how to perform take-offs (shudder); or that HOT2000 is no good (shriek)? Don't panic.

Balanced ·mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MYHR) offers, in principle, a way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from dwellings. In order for such systems to produce a clear reduction in C02 it is necessary for the emissions from the low temperature heat saved to exceed those from the electricity used to drive them. This condition places a lower limit on the coefficient of performance (COP) of MYHR systems, which in the UK is around 3. The major variable in system performance is the electrical input to the fans.

The model demonstration house described in this paper was designed to optimize occupant health by minimizing indoor air pollution. This was accomplished by the use of three primary principles:  ELIMINATION, SEPARATION, AND VENm.ATION.1 Pollutant source strength reduction has come to be regarded as the most effective method of reducing indoor pollution. This is often easily achieved by ELIMINATING potentially polluting materials wherever possible, and using more benign low outgassing materials instead.