Ireland

Indoor air quality and thermal comfort was measured in 14 three-bedroom, semi-detached, cavity wall naturally-ventilated homes during the winter following an energy efficient retrofit. As part of the energy retrofit, homes received new windows and doors, an upgraded heating system, attic insulation, and wall vents, as well as pumped beaded wall insulation into three external walls.

Overheating is an unwanted consequence of modern building designs and internal gains that will be aggravated by the effects of climate change on local climates within urban and suburban areas. To minimise the energy cost of limiting overheating several different approaches exist for passive cooling dissipation techniques. Free cooling by ventilation, or Ventilative Cooling, (VC), is a generally accepted effective, energy efficient, mitigation strategy to building overheating. There are many factors that influence the design and selection of suitable VC strategies.

The modelling framework IAPPEM was redeveloped to predict indoor radon concentrations in dwellings that have undergone an energy retrofit, and have experienced a consequent air tightness change. The framework is flexible, and allows for simulations to be carried out under various pre-retrofit radon concentration levels, multi-zone building geometries, ventilation configurations and retrofit types. However, detailed real-time radon concentration and ventilation data is necessary for model validation, and such data is non-existent in the Irish context.