Low-energy cooling conception in office buildings.

Air conditioning is widely used in the office building sector in the French Mediterranean region. Though often a «sine qua non» for renting office space, there is however a widespread feeling that operating and maintaining air-conditioning systems can be troublesome (unreliability, regulation and maintenance difficulties, non uniform comfort conditions, high prices are frequently lamented). With European support we aimed to explore how the market might adjust to these conflicting customer demands and provide actors in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur (P ACA) region with improved tools (customised analysis and design, packages of retrofit solutions) which could lead evolution toward building stock of improved comfort, higher energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.