field measurement

Recent studies have shown that ventilative cooling reduces overheating, improves summer comfort and decreases cooling loads. Therefore, it is considered as one of the most efficient way to improve summer comfort. Although, HVAC designers still lack of guidelines to improve the energy and comfort efficiency of their installations.  

Using natural ventilation is effective to save energy, and it is essential for energy conservation and decreasing running cost [1]. However, in office buildings located in where mid- to -high-rise buildings are densely distributed, the way of ensuring stable ventilation is very important matter of natural ventilation system. In this research, we focus on the ventilation performance of an office building where the natural ventilation system is introduced by utilizing the buoyancy force through a ventilation shaft.

Mandatory building airtightness testing has come gradually into force in European countries mostly because of the increasing weight of building leakage energy impact on the overall energy performance of low-energy buildings. Therefore, airtightness level of new buildings has significantly improved in the last decade.
However, until now, low expertise is available about the durability of building airtightness at mid- and long-term scales.

Recently, insulation retrofits of existing houses have been thought to be one of the effective measures from the viewpoint of global warming prevention. However, the overall reduction effects of environmental loads by the insulation retrofits have not yet been clarified. This study intends to accumulate basic data concerning the insulation retrofits and to promote the energy saving of existing houses. 

In this study, we propose a method for forecasting heat emission effect in a small single-sided slit opening. In order to make a heat flux forecasting model, we carried out field measurement, wind tunnel experiment, and CFD analysis. In the field measurement, we measured heat flux and grasped the relationship of heat flux of the opening and airflow around the building surface. In the wind tunnel experiment, we measured airflow around the opening and grasped turbulence characteristics.

As part of a field measurement project of unvented gas fireplaces in 30 homes, portable carbon monoxide sensors were located in several places in each home. This was done to assess the degree to which combustion by-products became distributed throughout the home. The sensors indicated that carbon monoxide levels began rising throughout the home almost immediately, at or near the one-minute sampling interval. The results show that, on average, the reading in the middle of the fireplace room was about 95% of the reading at the mantel.

In the light of global environmental problems, it is vital for buildings to conserve energy and make use of natural energies. Natural ventilation is one important method for achieving this. In houses, natural ventilation is a very attractive way to control the indoor environment. Compared to this, mid- to high-rise buildings include many closed spaces where windows cannot be opened and internal heat is trapped inside, which increases the cooling load. Based on this situation, consciousness of environmentally friendly buildings and utilization of natural energy becomes high.

Study on existing indoor thermal environment is becoming more and more important for design of theindoor thermal environment and the application of energy-saving technology. In this work the fieldmeasurement of thermal environment in a complex atrium building was conducted and different effectson the indoor thermal environment were analyzed. The atrium is 14m in height. The first floor is forexhibition, and the cooling air can be supplied by air jets located on the upper position of the sidewall.The corridors on the second and third floors are not air conditioned.

In order to clarify determine the energy consumption and the indoor environment of an experimentalhouse with energy efficient design, measurements were taken since January 2006. The house isoccupied twice a year, for a week each in summer and winter. Simulation was used to predict theenergy consumption and indoor environment of the experimental house with a typical four-personfamily. The aim of this study is to understand the influence of energy efficient building design on energyconsumption and indoor environment.

The outside convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) of building roof is an important parameter foraccurately calculating heat transfer through roof and simulating airflow around buildings. However, thecorrelations concerning CHTC in various studies seem to be discrepant. The experiment usingnaphthalene method to measuring CHTC was carried out on a nine-story building roof during 15 August2006-22 August 2006. Test specimens with glazed surface were ranged at twenty points on buildingroof. Test specimens used in this study were cast by molten naphthalene in molds.