Over the last decades, a great importance has been given to thermal insulation, in technological designing of building envelope. Lately, a basic requirement of indoor air quality, strictly related to ventilation control strategies, has been highlighted. Then, it is necessary to evaluate correctly, during the design phase, the air permeability of enclosures through validated methods, to assess new technologies through laboratory tests on prototypes and finally to verify real performances through on-site testings.
During 1997, an energy efficient building was designed, featuring energy conservation, passive solar heating, natural cooling and daylighting strategies. It is located in the province of La Pampa, in the temperate semi-arid region of central Argentina. The resulting compact design houses takes 634m2 of useful floor area with main spaces. An audience class, two laboratories, four research offices, one simple class and services make up the building. Solar windows are provided for all main spaces, except in the audience class. Clestories contribute to add solar gains and natural lighting.
Air conditioning is widely used in the office building sector in the French Mediterranean region. Though often a «sine qua non» for renting office space, there is however a widespread feeling that operating and maintaining air-conditioning systems can be troublesome (unreliability, regulation and maintenance difficulties, non uniform comfort conditions, high prices are frequently lamented).
Low energy buildings should satisfied two main tasks: to assure a low energy use and provide an excellent residence comfort. The building envelopment elements, especially the transparent one, have major influence on both tasks. The paper presents research results of heat transfer and fluid flows through double pane window with tight, opaque insulation screen. The insulation screen was installed in such a way, that a semi open air gap was formed. An air gap is connected with the building interior through an opening on the bottom and with exterior through siphon at the top.
This study aims to introduce a methodology which enables to revise the limit values of overallheat transfer coefficient in accordance with the building form from thermal comfort andenergy conservation point of view.In order to prevent excess heat loss, building should be designed as passive heating system.Overall heat transfer coefficient (U-value) of building envelope and building form can beconsidered as the most important parameters of the passive heating system. Therefore, U-valueof building envelope should be determined depending on building form.
Recent research suggests that fine-particulate air pollution increases the incidence of lung disease and pre-mature death. Single fibre filter theory is used to predict the theoretical particulate collection efficiency of air permeable walls (dynamic insulation). The relationship between particle diameter and filtration efficiency for dynamic insulation, as a function of flow rate, is examined and compared to that for a conventional filter.
It is often assumed that commercial and institutional buildings are fairly airtight and that envelope air leakage does not have a significant impact on energy consumption and indoor air quality in these buildings. Furthermore, it is assumed that more recently constructed buildings are tighter than older buildings. However, very little data is available on the airtightness of building envelopes in commercial and institutional buildings.
There is a need to improve building envelopes in many parts of the developing world. In cold climates, scarce fuel is consumed in an attempt to maintain reasonable indoor temperatures. In Northern Pakistan, traditional houses are made with stone walls while newer buildings, houses and schools, use uninsulated concrete block that has even lower thermal resistance. Evaluation and improvement of these buildings were undertaken with a regional non-governmental organization. Measurements were made of the thermal resistance of typical exterior walls.
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