Gives a brief overview of energy-estimating procedures for energy conservation in buildings. States that most of these procedures are either too simplistic to provide the desired level of accuracy and comprehensiveness or they are too complex to gain widespread usage. Reports on the development of a comprehensive modified bin method for estimating building energy usage, created by the ASHRAE Technical Committee (TC) 4.7 for Energy Calculations. This procedure can lend itself for manual calculations and can be easily programmed into microcomputers.
Investigates the accuracy of the TWOZONE computer auditing program (used in analyzing the energy performances of residences) when used with home-owner supplied data. Compares actual energy consumption data collected from houses in New Mexico with estimates obtained from the TWOZONE model using input data from occupant questionnaires. Finds a high degree of variability between predicted and observed values, and concludes that much of the error introduced into the prediction is attributable to the qualitative nature of the data supplied by the respondents.
Reports on seminar at University of Lund, Sweden and the factors affecting U-value: radiation, thermal capacity, moisture in materials, evaporation of precipitation moisture, convection, air movement, quality of work, cold bridges, ageing, air gaps.
Provides a brief summary of Swedish energy policy. Covers current knowledge and research in Sweden concerning low-energy buildings and building services, energy supply, the built environment and heat pumps.
Describes an investigation to see what energy saving can be achieved by the regulation of mechanical ventilation systems in high rise buildings. Measures air leakage in a block of flats, and uses a calculation model to predict the amount of energy lost due to ventilation in various situations. Concludes that the reduction of ventilation has no disadvantageous consequences for the operation of the system, and that the extracted air flow is affected more by incorrect adjustment of extractor vents then by opening windows, regardless of the setting of the ventilator.
Describes results from wind-tunnel tests on models of the Building Research Establishment's experimental building at Aylesbury. The use of several scale models of this building in uniform and in simulated atmospheric boundary-layer flows together with the results from the full-scale experiments allow an assessment of the effect of variations in the ratio of the longitudinal- turbulence integral length scale to body dimension.
Describes the relationship between wind flow round a building and heat loss from it. The relative merits of numerical and wind tunnel models are discussed and various numerical techniques, including the vortex method and the control volume method, are examined.
States that one of the major difficulties in estimating air infiltration rates in buildings is lack of full scale data on pressure distribution on various structural shapes located in different types of surface roughness category. Tries to fill this gap by studying two building structures of different shapes and situated in different environments, registering the mean pressure distribution and calculating the rate of air leakage due to openings. The first house is of old type construction and in a `semi-urban' environment.
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