Ventilation and air infiltration into buildings represent a substantial energy demand which can account for between 25% to over 50% of a building's total space heating (or cooling) needs. Unnecessary or excessive air change can therefore have an important impact on global energy use. On the other hand insufficient ventilation may result in poor indoor air quality and consequential health problems.

Designing for optimum ventilation performance is hence a vital part of building design. This task is made especially difficult, however, by the complexities of airflow behaviour, climatic influences, occupancy patterns and pollutant emission characteristics.

In recognition of the significant impact of ventilation on energy use, combined with concerns over indoor air quality, the International Energy Agency (IEA) inaugurated the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre in 1979 (To be more precise, the AIVC is one of the annexes running under the ECBCS, Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems, which is one of the Implementing Agreements of the IEA). The AIVC offers industry and research organisations technical support aimed at optimising ventilation technology. We offer a range of services and facilities, including comprehensive database on literature standards, and ventilation data.

We also produce a series of guides and technical notes.The Centre holds annual conferences and workshops. We also publish a quarterly newsletter, Air Information Review with the accompanying AIVC-CD. Through this newsletter, the readers are informed of a wide range of ventilation related issues.

The operating agent of the AIVC is INIVE eeig (www.inive.org)

The following countries participate in the AIVC.

Denmark

Contacts in the participating countries

Belgium
P. Wouters and Ch. Delmotte Belgian Building Research Institute Lozenberg 7 B-1932 St-Stevens-Woluwe Belgium Tel: +32 2 655 77 11 Fax: +32 2 653 07 29 aivc@bbri.be
Czech Republic
M. Jicha Technicka 2 CZ-61669 Brno - Czech Republic Tel: +42.541.14.32.71 Fax: +42.541.14.33.65 Send e-mail I. Plockova Ministry of Industry and Trade Na Frantisku 32 CZ-110 00 Praha 1 - Czech Republic Tel: +420.224.85.22.11 Fax: +420.224.85.32.16 Send e-mail
France
Pierre Deroubaix ADEME Département Bâtiment et Collectivités, 500 Route des Lucioles, Sophia Antipolis, F-06560 Valbonne, France Tel: +33 4 93 95 79 56 Fax: +33 4 93 65 31 96 Send e-mail
Greece
Dr Matheos Santamouris Building Environmental Studies, Applied Physics Section, Department of Physics, University of Athens, University Campus, Building Phys/5, 15784, Athens, Greece Tel: +30 1 727 6841 Fax: +30 1 729 5282 Send e-mail
Japan
Takao Sawachi National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management Tachihara Tsukuba 1 305-0802 Japan Tel: +81.29.864.4356 Fax: +81.29.864.6774 Sawachi-t92ta@nilim.go.jp Haruki Osawa Building Research Institute Tachihara Tsukuba 1 305-0802 Japan Tel: +81-29. 864.6667 Fax: +81-29.864.6775 osawa@kenken.go.jp
Netherlands
Willem F. de Gids TNO Built Environment and Geosciences Division of Building and Systems PO Box 49 2600 AA Delft Netherlands Tel: +31 15 269 5300 (Direct: +31 15 269 5280) Fax: +31 15 269 5299 Send e-mail
Norway
Peter G. Schild Norwegian Building Research Institute, Forskningsveien 3b, PO Box 123, Blindern, N-0314 Oslo 3, Norway Tel: +47 22-976 555 Fax: +47-22-965 725 aivc@byggforsk.no
Republic of Korea
Yun-Gyu Lee Building and Urban Environment Research Division Korea Institute of Construction Technology - KICT 2311 Daehwa-Dong, Ilsan-Gu, Goyang- Si Gyeonggi-Do, 411-712 Republic of Korea Tel: +81.31.91.00.351 Fax: +81.31.91.00.361 Send e-mail
USA
Max Sherman Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Rd; MS 90-3074 Berkeley, CA 94720 USA Tel: +1 510 486-4022 Fax: +1 510 486 6658 Send e-mail

International Energy Agency - AIVC World Wide Web Edition Containing selected articles and features from the printed editions.
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