English

Attached garages can pose a threat to a home’s indoor air quality because the garage air, which often contains some contaminants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and volatile organic compounds, can migrate into living spaces. In this paper, a model is developed to characterize the transport of contaminants from a garage to a living space based on a measurement of single tracer gas decays without limiting the numbers of zones in the building.

Productivity of workers is greatly affected by their comfort in the workplace. Research has shown that thermal comfort is one of the most influential parameters on worker productivity, and that the running costs of a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system could be up to ten times lower compared to productivity losses that would be incurred in a free-runing building.

Office buildings are significant contributors to energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, and it is obvious that office building occupants and their behavior play an essential role in building energy performance. However, how buildings, respectively, their indoor environment, influence building occupant´s behavior, wellbeing, and productivity is not so clear and easy to predict. The main problem is that this correlation is very subjective and influenced by many factors.

The purpose of this study is to compare capture efficiencies of cooker/range hood (CEs) under various conditions to verify that there can exist a difference between a CE by applying a pressure difference across the building envelope made in a real environment of residence, and the CE of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard. This experiment was conducted in the field and in a laboratory.

In the United States, compartmentalization measurement of individual unit total leakage is the most common method of air leakage testing multifamily buildings. There are several advantages to this method: (1) The measurement includes interior leakage, which affects contaminant and sound transfer; (2) the test is easier to perform than others; (3) many people are qualified to perform the test; and (4) units can be tested earlier in the construction process than with other methods. However, exterior leakage has the greatest impact on energy performance.

In this study, a new programmable low-cost camera sensor equipped with a fisheye lens is used to detect the luminance and position of exterior glare sources using per-pixel analysis. The High Dynamic Range Imaging sensor is mounted on the interior surface of the window and facilitates an efficient daylight glare control framework. The control was implemented in a testbed office with automated roller shades and was compared with two commonly used solar protection control algorithms.

Considering all aspects of indoor environmental comfort (thermal, visual, acoustical and air quality) and their interactions, questionnaires aiming at detecting assess people's perception of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), well-being and satisfaction should be designed in a more homogeneous way. In particular, the choice of the questions, response options and scales adopted must satisfy consistency criteria between different IEQ areas, but also allow a direct correlation to specific measurable quantities.

The overall objective of the IEA EBC Annex 68” Project, “Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings”, has been to develop the fundamental basis for optimal design and control strategies for good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in highly energy efficient residential buildings, and to disseminate this information for use in practice. The project was defined in 2015, the working phase lasted for the years 2016-19, and the project was concluded with publications on 2020.

Healthy Buildings has become the marketing focus, if not the goal, for an increasing number of projects and organizations in the past five years. The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed a new and compelling spotlight directly onto buildings of all types, whether offices, homes, retail, restaurants, hotels, or schools. The issues are no longer limited to the functional parameters of the building design, construction, maintenance, and use.

It is evident from the existing research that poor thermal comfort can adversely affect the health and productivity of the occupants. The analysis of thermal comfort is even more significant in the health care environments where the occupants are potentially more vulnerable due to poor individual health (patients) and/or extended exposure to such conditions (staff). This study focuses on the evaluation of thermal comfort in hospitals’ recovery rooms considering both health care staff and patients.