LoginWe describe the potential of using hygroscopic materials that release moisture and latent heat in order to reduce the temperature of building envelopes and, there upon, conduction cooling loads.
Bibliographic database Airbase
AIRBASE is the Bibliographic Database of the AIVC. It contains publications and abstracts of articles related to energy efficient ventilation. Where possible, sufficient detail is supplied in the bibliographic details for users to trace and order the material via their own libraries. Topics include: ventilation strategies, design and retrofit methods, calculation techniques, standards and regulations, measurement methods, indoor air quality and energy implications etc. Entries are based on articles and reports published in journals, internal publications and research reports, produced both by university departments and by building research institutions throughout the world. AIRBASE has grown and evolved over many years (1979 to present day, over 22000 references and 16000 documents available online). For most of the references, the full document is also available online.
Access to the publications is free of charge.
As streets usually cover more than a quarter of the urban area, canyon street morphology plays an important role in creating the urban climate.
Wind access/protection in cities can be affected by the morphological characteristics of the built environment. Town-planning legislation, building codes and city plan regulations influence those characteristics.
We made a series of subjective experiments to grasp individual behaviours and thermal sensation of the occupants in as actual environmental conditions as possible by observation using video cameras.
The measurement and simulation of energy consumption and comfort is undertaken for a primary school in Melbourne, Australia.
This paper presents a passive design strategy where thermal comfort is achieved by engaging the occupants to define their own comfort condition and vary the quality of the space according to their needs.
Passive cooling techniques driven purely by natural wind forces present a highly attractive environmental solution in the perspective of low energy architecture.
Describes the experimental evaluation of a brick veneer steel stud (BVSS) test specimen. The system was evaluated for air leakage characteristics, pressure equalization response, deflection and water penetration.
The symposium aimed to address the merits and drawbacks of various requirements for residential ventilation along with the problems encountered in implementing these requirements.
The project selected fifteen patients known to be allergic to house dust mites and living in homes with bad moisture damage.
Describes a three-year EU funded research project into the application of passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) to non-domestic buildings. This paper specifically discusses the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model PDEC.
Presents a simplified CFD interface (SCI) intended to allow architects and building engineers to use CFD with little training. It can be easily integrated into new CFD programs.
A children's day care centre in Finland was the site of a study on the effect of ventilation and air filtration systems on indoor air quality.
Describes the investigation in 1994 of a suspected case of sick building syndrome at a communications centre.
States that schools often have a low air change rate. The study attempted to find out if an improvement in school ventilation would lead to improved health in pupils.
The most important indoor particle sources in the four single family homes studied were found to be cooking, cleaning and the movement of people.
Documents a study of airborne fungal concentration in a newly constructed building on the Gulf coast.
Attempts to determine the influence of the installation of highly insulated windows and central heating systems on indoor climate, and mite-allergen (Der f 1) and mould spore concentrations.
The study investigates the effect of mechanical ventilation and high-efficiency vacuuming on house dust mite numbers and allergen concentrations in dwellings of mite-sensitive asthmatics.
Air infiltration through the exterior envelope of a residential building impacts significantly on the heating energy consumption and cost, especially in a cold climate such as Montreal's.