Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:46
About 3 billion people worldwide, and more than 90% in developing countries, are at risk of developing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer, due to exposure to household air pollution attributable to the combustion of solid biomass fuels. In Nepal, various types of fuel are used, such as wood, animal dung, and agricultural residues, as a primary source of energy for domestic cooking and heating.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:45
Excessive air leakage through the building envelope increases the infiltration heat loss and therefore lowers the energy efficiency. Therefore, very good airtightness is required in case of well insulated buildings equipped with a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery (e.g. n50 < 0.6 h-1 for passive houses). Although the building industry has progressively adopted strategies to comply with such strict limits, it is still important to study how and how much the airtightness influences the energy efficiency of different types of buildings in different climatic conditions.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:44
In recent years, concerns about global warming and greenhouse gas emissions have motivated designers to reduce building energy consumption through the implementation of passive solutions without compromising users’ thermal comfort. This evidence has stimulated a renewed interest in designers for the exploitation of natural ventilation as means of passive cooling solutions. The adoption of ventilative cooling is particularly suitable for large spaces (non-residential buildings) as a measure to reduce the HVAC system high cooling loads.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:42
Overheating is an unwanted consequence of modern building designs and internal gains that will be aggravated by the effects of climate change on local climates within urban and suburban areas. To minimise the energy cost of limiting overheating several different approaches exist for passive cooling dissipation techniques. Free cooling by ventilation, or Ventilative Cooling, (VC), is a generally accepted effective, energy efficient, mitigation strategy to building overheating. There are many factors that influence the design and selection of suitable VC strategies.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:37
This paper introduces a comparison study of measuring the airtightness of a house sized test chamber using the novel pulse technique and the standard blower door method in a controlled environment. Eight different testing plates have been applied to the improvised envelope of the chamber to establish different leakage characteristics. Each testing plate has a unique opening in the centre of the plate, achieved by obtaining a different combination of shape and thickness of the opening.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:35
Recirculation hoods equipped with carbon and plasma filters are becoming more and more popular. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of recirculation hoods with regard to PM2.5 and NOx removal in a 26 m3 lab kitchen with a gas furnace. With the carbon filter PM2.5 is reduced for about 30%. A fresh carbon filter removed about 60% of the NO2, dropping within a few weeks of cooking to 20%. With the plasma hood NO2 concentrations were above the WHO 1-hour limit and the Dutch health council 15 minutes limit.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:31
Energy renovations seek to improve the airtightness of dwellings and thus require ventilation and heat recovery to maintain or improve energy-efficiency, indoor climate, and durability. These ventilation systems often control the indoor air of an apartment as a single climate zone, which neglects the different demands of individual rooms. Renovations result in greater retention of heat and air inside the building envelope, so rooms become especially sensitive to gains from solar radiation, occupancy, moisture loads and pollutants.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:29
Most natural ventilation (NV) systems used in non-residential buildings are single sided (SS). These systems are easy to integrate in the building layout, since, unlike in cross-ventilation (CV), these systems do not require access to two facades or a central stack. Current knowledge about SS NV flow penetration away from the façade can be found in building regulations and design rules of thumb.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:27
Natural ventilation has the potential to provide cooling and fresh air and cut 40% of the total energy consumption of European office buildings. While in the milder seasons natural ventilation is an obvious low-energy choice, if poorly designed it can cause overheating in summer and poor air quality in winter. In order to promote the use and design of naturally ventilated (NV) buildings, it is therefore important to understand how current NV buildings perform in terms of thermal comfort and indoor air quality.
Submitted by Maria.Kapsalaki on Thu, 11/23/2017 - 15:24
As UK homes are insulated and draught proofed in an attempt to reduce wintertime heating demand they become more airtight. Any reduction in infiltration could have a detrimental effect on indoor air quality. Controllable background ventilation provided by trickle vents is one method of maintaining indoor air quality.