Notes that moisture problems could arise with improvements to thermal insulation of buildings. In addition indoor radon levels could rise. Considers the choice of heating system. Compares total costs of alternative systems. Treats the effects of increased insulation on internal environments. Identifies moisture sources. Stresses this should be regarded as only a limited guideline and that there is a need to ascertain the heat and mass transfer behaviours of building materials, particularly those that affect prediction of the transient behaviour.
Summarises in tables the energy consumptions of a block of flats and a single house demonstrating how the share of energy consumed for fresh air heating and domestic hot water supply increases significantly in line with improved thermal insulation.
Notes that the Department of the Environment is considering the implications of imposing limits for the maximum annual dose of radiation to which occupants of existing and new homes should be exposed, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in its report of 1984. Describes radon's properties and origins in buildings, where levels are at least ten times higher than outdoors. The occupants of some homes, chiefly on granitic soils, receive up to 100 times the national average dose from radon. Explains the units used when discussing radon.
Describes the pollutant burdens on indoor air. Notes heat exchanges by air renewal and associated heat losses. Examines how to determine the required air change rate. Lists the minimum air changes for various types of building with and without smoking. Treats air infiltration. Considers how to reduce losses with air renewal by weather stripping, special air inlets, reduction of the indoor air temperature, heat recovery with controlled mechanical ventilation, heat pumps and heat pipes.
Examines the most important sources of indoor air pollution in dwellings. These include pollutants introduced with the outside air, pollutants generated by human activity, emissions from building materials, furnishings, cleaning and polishing materials and disinfectants. Notes the importance of keeping formaldehyde and carbon dioxide down to safe levels. Discusses the consequences for the minimum room air change rate.
Describes a novel modification of stroboscopic illumination used to give an unambiguous record of the direction of the flow in an otherwise conventional visualisation of a complex three dimensional air flow. The flow was seeded with small soap bubbles which were viewed by scattered light. Each flash of light was split into two periods of unequal length, separated by a short extinction, thereby marking the direction of flow on the photographs. The technique allows a more complete determination of the velocity field than can be obtained by the usual stroboscopic method.
The R-values of permeable insulation systems are generally determined in test apparatus designed to assure one-dimensional heat transfer and to assure no air intrusion effects. Such classical R-values are used to help describe insitu heat-tra
Describes the different types of monitoring and sampling techniques that can determine the radiation burden of the general public from radon and its decay products. This is accomplished by measuring the range and distribution of radon and rad
Simulation methods and test results are presented here to confirm projections of actual total suspended particulate (TSP) concentration levels for representative office buildings, with particular emphasis on the 0.3 to 5 micron particulate si
The U.S. EPA initiated an indoor air monitoring program in 1982, concentrating on commercial or public-access buildings (homes for the elderly, schools, and office buildings). Several buildings from each category are sampled over 2-3 day peri
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