IJV10

Increasing demand for energy efficiency places new requirements on energy use in historic buildings. Efficient energy use is essential if a historic building is to be used and preserved, especially buildings with conventional uses such as residential buildings and offices. This paper presents results which combine energy auditing with building energy simulation and an indoor environment survey among the occupants of the building. Both when comparing simulations with measurements as well as with survey results good agreement was found.

The air distribution characteristics formed by an "air curtain" ventilation approach are investigated in detail. The airflow visualization and full-scale experimental results of air distribution in an occupied zone are reported in this paper. The Coanda effect of air curtain ventilation and the spreading airflow over the floor in a room are demonstrated. Additionally, the "air lake" or "air pool" phenomenon created by air curtain ventilation resembles displaced air movement to some extent.

The potential application of Passive and Hybrid Downdraught Cooling to residential buildings is explored using an experimental facility constructed and tested in Seville, Spain. The experiment was devised as a prototype of the downdraught evaporative cooling system for the Nottingham University entry to the 2010 Solar Decathlon Europe competition.

Among policy makers in many countries there is seemingly an almost unstoppable demand to require homes, schools and offices to be hermetically sealed and mechanically ventilated. The reasoning is one of control. As the thermal insulation properties of buildings improve, ventilation accounts for an ever-increasing proportion of the total thermal energy loss. Current thinking suggests that, by incorporating mechanical systems, a substantial amount of ventilation losses can be recovered through heat recovery.