PR2006

The common EPIC – AIVC Conference was organized in Lyon France between 22 to 24 of November 2006. A very high number of excellent papers were presented and the conference was regarded as being of high scientific quality. 

More than 80 of the papers presented at the Conference dealt with ventilation studies and most of these reported very interesting and innovative results. Among the best papers, we have selected 10 which we believe merit publication in the International Journal of Ventilation. 

A conference report from the 27th AIVC and 4th Epic Conference  "Technologies & sustainable policies for a radical decrease of the energy consumption in buildings", held in Lyon, France, 20-22 November 2006.

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Although there is significant support among policy makers and politicians for energy efficiencyimprovements in buildings, there remains a lack of understanding of what policies (regulatory,economic, communicative and organisational) can deliver these changes on the ground. The blueprintstudy attempts to address this gap.

An important part of IEA 34/43 is concerning validation of building simulation models.

In this paper, we discuss the characteristics, of diatomite, a moisture-absorbent material used for anew air-conditioning system. Diatomite powder is formed into grains (diameter: 8 mm) with a slantrotatingprocessing machine. After that, the grains are baked. Small balls (diameter: 45 mm) are thenformed from the grains, and are used as moisture-absorbent materials for cells in a moistureabsorbentdehumidifying ventilation device. Gross moisture conductivity (GMC) of the small balls wasmeasured under two conditions.

High energy savings can be expected from building energy and climate concepts which combinethe heat pump technology with a low temperature energy distributions such as concrete corewater pipe circuits within building zones. The paper describes two case studies of a heat pumpplant for heating and cooling of nonresidential buildings. For concept comparison purposes aglobal objective function will be developed in the frame of IEA-ECBCS Annex 48 and has beenpartially tested by using project constrains, thermal comfort expectations and lifecycle costs of thefoccused case studies.

Highly efficient thermal insulation of the building envelope demands for layers up to 40 cm thickness.This often causes problems regarding architecture and loss of space, especially in building renovation.An attractive alternative is the recently introduced vacuum insulation panel (VIP) having a 5 to 8 timeslower thermal conductivity than conventional thermal insulation. Aging effects and service life arecrucial aspects of those high performance insulation systems, as gas permeation through theenvelope barrier may drastically reduce the insulation efficiency.

The project BESTFAÇADE accumulated the state of the art of double skin façades in seven European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Sweden). 28 façades of different buildings in all partner countries of BESTFAÇADE have been

This paper describes an educational tool developed at LASH ENTPE (France) laboratory. Theobjective of this tool, called SIMUBEMS, is to familiarize ENTPE students with control techniques andallows performing simulations in order to test heating and ventilation control strategies.An office building equipped with an HVAC system has been used to carry out the simulations. Themodelled zone is 9 m long, 6 m large and 2.5 m height and has large glazed faade.