English

The Energy Conservation for Buildings andCommunities Systems (ECBCS) is anImplementing Agreement among 23 countriesof the IEA (International Energy Agency) forenergy research and development in buildingsand communities. The ECBCS has nowcompleted 43 major international projectsresulting in demonstrated and adoptedtechnologies and tools with major impacts onenergy efficiency and environmental impacts inbuildings and communities. The ECBCS hasnow completed its 2008-13 strategic plan.

This paper discusses the possibility of asimple solar hot water pre-heating system fordomestic hot water supply. In Japan, the fossilfuel use for hot water supply amounts to about30% of the total in residential buildings. The useof conventional solar hot water heaters has beendecreased draniatically over the last 30 years,although the extensive use should have beenexpected. They are regarded to be notnecessarily cheap and moreover theirappearance has not been preferred by quite afew building designers.

In recent years, the insulation and air-tightnesslevels of newly constructed houses in Japanhave been improved for purpose of energysaving. However, a reduced design of airpermeability (i.e. a high level of air-tightness)will provide insufficient air through infiltrationresulting in a significant and negative impact ona social problem of sick house syndrome. TheJapanese Building Standard has been revised toreduce the concentration of Formaldehydewhich is considered to be one of the maincauses of sick house syndrome.

Conventional air-conditioning control in a roomassumes perfect diffusion of temperature in theroom, and relies on a temperature sensorinstalled on the wall or ceiling of the room, or inthe return duct. Air-conditioning is controlled sothat the sensor temperature becomes equal tothe sensor-set temperature ("set temperature").In reality, however, since thermal stratificationoccurs in a room, the set temperature is oftennot attained in an occupied zone that should beproperly air-conditioned. This may result inexcessive cooling.

An investigation to understand the actual conditionsof smoking spaces was conducted, and itbecame clear that the introduction of a highlyefficientventilation system is necessary, in additionto the securing of a sufficient ventilationvolume. In addition, case studies using CFD andexperiments were conducted on the effects ofintroducing a highly-efficient ventilation systemto smoking rooms.

A roof is one of the most importantcharacteristics of Thai architecture especiallyin a house, traditionally. Also, the roof is apart of the house that mainly effects energysaving due to heat allowance pass through andrelease from indoor space. The study, basedon model experiments, targets to find out theeffects of roof forms on indoor air temperature.The purpose is to give information for roofform types selection in Thai Houses. Models,lxlxl meter boxes, are used for theexperiments by changing their roof forms forcomparison.

Sales data shows that the use of air-to-air heatpumps in New Zealand houses is rapidlyincreasing. This rapid uptake will lead to newenergy and peak power demands on theelectricity supply system. Recent monitoringwork lias found solid fuel burners provided 56%of home heating energy while only 24% waselectricity. Heat puinps are therefore inainlydisplacing non-electric heating, and this mustultimately require additional electricitygeneration, transmission and distributioninfrastructure. Patterns of use will be critical tothe long-term impact.

The effect of downdraft spoilers is questioned.CFD results are presented for a large atriumequipped with downdraft spoilers ("obstacles")to counteract downdraft from glazed faqades.Simulations are in addition presented for oneandtwo-story test rooms, where aspects of theefficiency of downdraft spoilers are investigated.Among conclusions are that the spatial thermalbalance of rooms, e.g. stratification or otherbuoyancy driven flows, are essential to thedowndraft, more so, than downdraft spoilers.

It is well known that the turbulence anisotropyhas a remarkable influence on the flow of threedimensional wall jets. So the accuratesimulation of room airflows with air suppliesmounted just below the ceiling requires a highlevelturbulence closure.Therefore in this paper the potential for theimprovement of room airflow prediction byusing different Reynolds stress models and anew nonlinear eddy viscosity turbulence modelare discussed.

A push-pull fume cupboard is a device to capture chemical vapors in a laboratory or a factory. It utilizes a push flow from the bottom of the sash and a pull flow behind the doorsill to form an air curtain and capturepollutants inside the cupboard. The effects ofarms and walk-by on the capture flow in thepush-pull fume cupboard are not clear. Hence,this study is aimed on evaluation of theinfluences of arms and walk-by on the fumecupboard using a numerical model for turbulentflow. In terms of predicted results, thepush-pull fume cupboard is not affected byarms.