English

Meteorological measurements required for the development of a design scheme that responds to the local environment are generally recorded by the weather service in stations that are assumed to be representative of the surrounding region. However, no account is taken of the changes in conditions caused by urban development, even though differences between meteorological conditions within cities compared with adjacent rural areas (the heat island effect) may be substantial.

This project presents the development of an algorithm predicting ambient greenhouse air conditions to be used for energy efficiency simulation and control schemes optimization. The climatic conditions considered are temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration and solar radiation. The algorithm has two modes of operation, the first simulates the greenhouse while in the second the heating, cooling, humidification or dehumidification, CO2 injection rates are calculated to maintain certain setpoints.

Experience of energy auditing of residential buildings in Latvia discovers problems with discrepancy of data measured and calculated. Analysis of dynamic changes of data presents factors, which influence results of energy audits and proposals for energy efficiency measure. Paper presents analysis of influence of solar radiation and modelling of solar factor for control of heat supply.

The severe impact on health associated with biocontaminants, such as dust mites, has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Consequently, a considerable effort has taken place to develop biocontaminant growth models and to assess the efficacy of possible psychrometric control measures, involving the modification of room conditions. However this approach is not always successful due to the low correlation between room conditions and those within the microenvironments inhabited by biocontaminants.

Application of lighting control technologies has increased the public interest. Although these technologies have been promoted during the last years their successful use in buildings has been accomplished in a small percentage of new projects. One reason is the difficulty in quantifying the energy savings and thus the subsequent payback period.

The existing buildings stock in European countries accounts for over 40% of final energy consumption in the European Union (EU) member states, of which residential use represents 63% of total energy consumption in the buildings sector. Consequently, an increase of building energy performance can constitute an important instrument in the efforts to alleviate the EU energy import dependency and comply with the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Other papers in this conference discuss the experimental requirements for high quality outdoor testing of building components and the subsequent analysis procedures for identifying key parameters that quantify performance. This is important for achieving standardised metrics that characterise the building component of interest, whether it is a passive solar component such as a ventilated window, or an active component such as a hybrid photovoltaic module.

As overheating problems in glassy buildings came up more and more, EMPA put a focus on the determination and modelling of the total solar energy transmittance (TSET) of multiple glazing combined with different shading systems within the framework of IEA Task 27 "Performance, durability and sustainability of solar faade components". Experimental data were produced by a calorimetric outdoor test facility near Zurich (Switzerland).

The construction and development of the PASSYS outdoor test cells were funded by the European Commission with the objective of providing high quality test environments for quantifying the performance of passive solar building components. Over the years since the original test cells were commissioned, the original concept for outdoor testing has been extended to include other test cell types. Significant improvements have been made to the experimental procedures and analysis techniques, and a broad range of components have been tested.

The IQ-Test Thematic Network has carried out round robin tests at 10 of the PASLINK outdoor test cell facilities. A round robin test generally produces a clear picture of the overall quality of certain test procedures carried out by the participating organisations. For practical considerations, each organisation constructed its own components according to strict instructions regarding the selection of materials, manufacture and instrumentation.