English

The performance of ventilation and airtightness of the building envelope was studied in field measurements in recently constructed Estonian apartment buildings. The buildings were selected with different building envelopes and ventilation systems. The mean air leakage rate at the pressure difference of 50 Pa in the database was 1.7 m3/(h·m2). The mean air change rate at the pressure difference of 50 Pa from the database was 2.3 h-1.

The quality of the air that we breathe inside our homes, offices, schools and other public or private buildings is an important determinant of healthy life and people’s well being. Indoor air pollutants, either infiltrating from the outside or produced by indoor sources, are associated with a wide range of both acute and chronic health outcomes. These include respiratory symptoms, asthma, effects on the nervous system, cardio-vascular diseases and lung cancer

The paper summarizes the activites undertaken by AppliedSensor within the European Clear-up project with respect to new developments in volatile organic compound sensing for demand controlled ventilation. State-of-the-art is to use non-dispersive infrared sensor technology for indoor carbon dioxide detection. Carbon dioxide so far serves as indicator for bad indoor air quality and required ventilation rates.

This paper describes the results of a Dutch national study into performance of mechanical ventilation systems and its effect on the self-reported health and perceived indoor environmental quality of occupants.

Starting already 1950 i.e. for more than 60 years back in time – we have been using a probably quite unique quality assurance system in Sweden covering all aspects of building and installation technologies. Practically all buildings and their installations are performed according to the quality requirements in the AMA specification guidelines (General Material and Workmanship Specifications). The AMA requirements are made valid when they are referred to in the contract between the owner and the contractor.

The Proceedings of the 32nd AIVC Conference " Towards Optimal Airtightness Performance", held in Brussels, Belgium, 12-13 October 2011.

This paper presents some first approaches for the national application of the nearly zero-energy building definition according to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive by summarising the current plans of Germany, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. As a contribution from a 5th country, the planned national energy performance requirements of Switzerland for the phase from 2018 onwards were included. It was also analysed whether any of the countries will set specific requirements to the air-tightness of NZEBs and if there are specific requirements for ventilation techniques

It is widely accepted that ventilation is critical for providing good indoor air quality (IAQ) in homes. However, the definition of "good" IAQ, and the most effective, energy efficient methods for delivering it are still matters of research and debate. This paper presents the results of work done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to identify the air pollutants that drive the need for ventilation as part of a larger effort to develop a health-based ventilation standard.

The EPBD (EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) Concerted Action is a cooperative effort from all 27 EU Member States (MS), plus Norway and Croatia, together with the European Commission. It is running since 2004, under the Intelligent Energy programme since 2007. It aims at providing support to MS in their effort to transpose and then implement the EPBD, identifying the best solutions and practices that MS can then adopt and thus move towards harmonization throughout the EU.

Today an acceptable indoor air quality is mainly defined by specifying the required level of ventilation in air changes per hour or the outside air supply rate. This would be equivalent to defining the requirements for thermal comfort by specifying the level of heating or cooling in Watts. The increasing societal need for energy efficiency will often result in very tight buildings. This means that the amount of outside air supplied by infiltration is not enough to provide the required ventilation.