English

The airtightness of buildings gains in importance ever more for the planning ofbuildings. The regulations for the securing of the energy-saving thermal protectiondemand beyond that a durably air-impermeable building envelope, in order to avoidunnecessary thermal losses and building damages.

All times the building cover was made as airtight as possible. With massiveconstructions it was all above the plasterwork, which took over the sealing function.The air exchange was usually realised by the leaky windows, which still had nocircular seals. With the usual massive constructions, built after 1945, the relativeinterieur air humidity was about 30 to 35%, the natural air change rate amounted tonL of about 0,3 to 0,5 per hour.

Low-energy buildings up to the passive house level slowly become generallyaccepted also in Tschechien, which is naturally connected with suitable ventilationstrategies. The contribution presents the most frequently used technical systems anddiscusses those properties and acceptance. The number of built very low-energyhouses in Tschechien tends to rise, the absolute numbers are still very low. Stillseveral barriers are to be overcome, whereby the technical questions represent only one part.

In many urban areas, pavements and roofs constitute over 60% of urban surfaces (roof 20-25%, pavements about 40%). The roof and the pavement albedo can be increased by about 0.25 and 0.10, respectively, resulting in a net albedo increase for urban areas of about 0.1. Many studies have demonstrated building cooling-energy savings in excess of 20% upon raising roof reflectivity from an existing 10-20% to about 60%. We estimate U.S. potential savings in excess of $1 billion (B) per year in net annual energy bills.

Human has developed a board rang of passive cooling techniques in various parts of the world up to a very impressive level of maturity: cliff dwellings through the world (ground cooling), wind towers (convective and mass cooling), sprinkling water with fountains (evaporative cooling), and whitewash (sun protection). All these cooling techniques were based on careful design in which heat and mass transfer principles did not make use of any mechanical energy: they were totally passive.

This paper presents the thermal comfort levels in a bioclimaticbuilding situated in the greater Athens area in Greece. The study was carried out under transient weather conditions (autumn) by the use of the PMV-PPD model during which the central heating and coolingsystem of the building was not operational. A surveywas also conducted regarding the thermal feeling of the occupants through questionnaires according to ASHRAE standard 55-2004 for the estimation of the actual mean vote (AMV) and actual percentage of dissatisfied(APD).

As the UK Building Regulations demand better insulatedand more airtight new buildings, a potential cooling requirement is emerging in new build dwellings in the UK, leading to an increase in the market for domestic air conditioning systems in this country.At the same time, current strategies at a European and National level are starting to focus on the use of renewableand low carbon energy sources, aiming at energy security and reduction of carbon emissions.Solar thermal cooling in small scale residential applicationsis of particular interest due to the major electrical energy supply proble

Throughout architectural history, local buildings have used great in providing the most comfortable internal conditions possible within the exigencies and constraintsof local climate.In Iraqis climates, accelerating airflow through induces evaporative cooling and across spaces, ensuring that directsunshine cannot penetrate the building and the thermalcapacity of massive structure is used to insulate and take up heat during the day and release it at night when it is cooler.

which is a typical residential building in the South MediterraneanSea. The house type is also representative for second home. It is a two-storey house that is assumed to be located in Rome.The objective of the research is to compare indoor comfortconditions of two kitchens (in which internal gains are defined taking into account a traditional use of the kitchen in Southern Italy) with different window configurations,natural ventilation and solar shading strategiesto avoid overheating in summer.Both rooms have the same floor area and the same total window area.

One of the main elements to consider in urban space design is the modification of the microclimate in order to improve the thermal comfort conditions of people livingin urban spaces.Sometimes it is very important to design very specific conditions for particular activities, time of days and season of the year. Design for thermal comfort requires therefore tools to provide an assessment of energy flows between townscape elements - persons and therefore an understanding of comfort conditions.