English

Building dampness and mouldy indoor environments are associated with the increase of approximately 30-50% in variety of respiratory and asthma-related health outcomes through a meta-analysis. The indoor environment related to indoor dampness is not be revealed yet, however it is important to provide the architectural techniques and optimal occupant behavior for prevention of dampness in buildings. The authors previously proposed an estimation method for home dampness using occupants self-reported answers to questions about visible vapor condensation, visible mould growth during winter.

Allergic symptoms are closely related to indoor allergens, such as airborne particulate matter, fungi, and house dust mite. This paper introduces a central air-conditioning system integrated with an electrical dust collector developed as a countermeasure against allergy. Here, it was demonstrated that this air-cleaning system can remove fine particles of PM2.5. Objectively, this study aims to elucidate the relationship between indoor allergens and occupants’ allergic symptoms.

There is no doubt that odor is also an important factor to evaluate indoor air quality. Since the olfactory system was proven to be closely related to the limbic structures which support emotion, long-term memory and motivation, the psychological and the physiological effects of the essential oils have been widely researched in various fields. The odor environment formed by essential oils is popularly used in commercial facilities to make customers have special mood.

To date, the vast majority of indoor air quality studies have relied on repeated visits to dwellings to obtain data derived from short-term monitoring exercises, a time-consuming process that places considerable constraints on personnel, equipment and costs. These studies have focussed on the use of research-grade instrumentation; however, recent developments in the field of consumer-grade indoor air quality sensor technology offers new opportunities.

In 2017 the Danish Building and Property Agency started a project titled “Avoiding energy waste in ventilation systems” by tracking the actual energy use in a sample of their 4 million m2 portfolio of buildings through on-line energy management tools. The project is not complete, but the key preliminary findings  described in this paper are: 

Throughout the certification process of air filters, the major technical characteristics are evaluating. Both theoretical models and experimental methods, proves some relationships between the parameters and the performance of product. In this article we present the statistical analysis of certified products according to EN ISO16890:2016. A sample of 1800 certified products by Eurovent Certita Certification is analysed to highlight products characteristics based on quantitative approach.

In recent years, especially, the climate change (CC) and urban heat island (UHI) effects are becoming serious problems, affecting people’s life and health, especially in hot summer. For large cities such as Tokyo or Osaka in Japan, the UHI effect is particularly intense. It is known that about 40% of urban anthropogenic heat comes from buildings in large cities. To reduce the anthropogenic heat from buildings is an important countermeasure to this problem.  

Upper floors of super-tall residential buildings have different characteristics of the exterior environment as compared to their low floors or low-rise residential buildings due to the high-rise. Upper floors are more affected by direct solar radiation due to the reduced number of adjacent shading buildings and by reflected solar radiation from rooftops. Super-tall buildings also have high level of airtightness because of higher wind speed with high-rise.

The perimeter space near windows usually has some problems with the thermal environment which is easily affected by heat transfer and radiation from windows. Compared to interior space of the room, the airflow in this area usually has different characteristics due to the effect of buoyancy, thus it may reduce thermal comfort of perimeter space. To improve the thermal environment in perimeters, breeze line diffusers are widely used in Japan as the terminal equipment of air conditioning and ventilation systems. This diffuser is the same as so-called ceiling slot diffuser.

Addressing the airtightness of the building envelope is key to achieve thermal comfort, good performance of ventilation systems and to avoid excessive energy consumption. Previous studies have estimated an energy impact on infiltration on the heating demand between 2 and 20 kWh/(m2·y) in regions with temperate climates. In Spain, this issue has not yet been addressed in depth. This study aims to assess the energy impact of uncontrolled air flows through the building envelope in residential buildings in Spain.