building

Theoretically if the thermal properties of a building envelope and the power of the HVAC systems are known, then air infiltration becomes the only one unknown component of the thermal balance of a building and could be defined from it. In reality, all data are approximate. Modern measurements and data processing techniques allow one to evade this obstacle.

A SUSTAINABLE BUILDING DESIGNED FOR A COLD CLIMATE WITH EXTENSIVE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY In the past, Telenor’s operations in Bergen have been spread across many sites and buildings. This was regarded as ineffective and uneconomic, and in 1995, the

This paper asks questions about what is the right tightness and a warns against too tight tightness guidelines.The author gives advice :- A tight building envelope should reduce average natural infiltration (due to wind and temperature) to 0.05 to 0.1 air change per hour.- A tight building envelope should contain the desired air pressure field.- A building envelope should not be too tight because of the unbalanced airflows that can create excessive levels of depressurization.

The Energy Conservation in Building and Community Systems program of the International Energy Agency has set up a research working group (Annex 40) on Commissioning of Building HVAC Systems for Improved Energy Performance. The objective of this new Annex is to develop, validate and document tools for commissioning buildings and building services. The paper describes the annex work which includes 5 tasks: 1) the commissioning process 2) manual commissioning tools 3) building energy management system assisted commissioning tools 4) use of models for ommissioning 5) commissioning projects.

Through the analysis of the main international environmental performance rating systems (BREEAM, LEED and GBTool) this work aims to show international design tendencies concerning sustainable building equipment requirements and to provide to designers and researchers a broad view of sustainable building equipment solutions. Hence a particular attention was paid to the assessment approach provided by these systems for each requirement, focussing on comparison of the building performance to a benchmark, compliance with qualitative indications or use of best technologies.

The European Community SAVE Directive 76/93, makes mandatory, among other things, for member states to implement an action called Energy Labelling of buildings. This labelling should consist of a description of the energy characteristics and some information about energy efficiency; and is aimed at reducing CO2 emission by means of a parallel reduction in energy consumption. The European Union allows each country to adopt the most suitable methodology according to weather and building industry characteristics and socio-economic context.

Describes two European research projects on performance criteria for healthy buildings in which TNO Building and Construction Research (The Netherlands) is involved : HOPE (Health optimisation protocol for energy efficient buildings : Prenormative and socio-economic research to create healthy and energy efficient buildings) and PeBBu (Performance based building Thematic Network).

An energy balance over an urban area and over a rural one, reveals that the first case is always more complex than the last one. The urban context is able to change all the energy transferences mainly due to its own layout. Thus, analysing all the energy transferences one by one, we can find how they affect in a different way depending on the surroundings, among other influences.

The White Paper on renewable Energy states that the total energy requirements in thedomestic sector could be reduced by 50% in EU until the year 2010, half of which could be accounts for by introducing passive and active solar technologies in buildings. A project has been undertaken with the aim to study and propose global strategies, tools and guidelines that will promote the efficient and cost effective global implementation of advanced systems and techniques in the refurbishment of existing settlements in Europe.