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The Czech Republic is a landlocked country located in the centre of Europe. The area of the Czech Republic is 78,866 km² and its population is about 10.4 million people. The Czech Republic was part of the former Czechoslovakia until 1993 and it has been a member state of the European Union since May 2004. The Czech Republic is an industrialized country enjoying a decent gross domestic product (GDP) growth (6.6 percent in 2007). The GDP per capita is currently at about 82 percent of the average of the 27 EU member states.
The largest cities in the Czech Republic are Prague (1.2 million), Brno (0.37 million), Ostrava (0.31 million), Plzen (0.16 million) and Olomouc (0.1 million).
The Czech Republic is a signatory of the Kyoto protocol with the obligation to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent from 1990 levels. The greenhouse gas emissions were down 26 percent in 2007.
The building ventilation market in the Czech Republic concentrates around commercial buildings (shopping malls, banks, movie theatres, restaurants, airports, etc.), where balanced mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is mostly used (usually as part of the central air-conditioning systems). The balanced mechanical ventilation systems are also used in newly built private office buildings, which very often have glass facades. The school buildings are usually naturally ventilated. Balanced mechanical ventilation is commonly used in lecture halls at universities but rarely used in offices and classrooms.
The regulations for residential ventilation are rather loose with natural ventilation by opening windows considered satisfactory in most situations.
Thanks to its mid-continental location the Czech Republic has a moderate climate with four distinct seasons. Space heating accounts for most of the energy use in the building sector. Space cooling has been rather rare and it is mostly used in commercial buildings. Mechanical cooling is rarely used in residential buildings, schools and hospitals.