In Sweden there are close to 500000 one-family houses heated by electric baseboard heaters. Of them 90 % were built before 1980. In this group the most common ventilation system is natural ventilation. Half of all houses 'with electric baseboard heaters were built between 1971 and 1980. The Swedish Council for Building Research has been asked by the Swedish government to carry out a program concerning the efficient use of electricity in buildings.
Two super insulated houses were built according to the Canadian R-2000 construction manual, in Sendai, Japan. The purpose of the construction is to clarify how much space heating energy is saved in a mild climate, and whether there are any problems related to indoor air quality and humidity in the winter and the thermal indoor environment during the summer, compared with an ordinary frame-construction house. This paper describes the measurement results of indoor temperature, humidity and indoor air quality for the winter and summer seasons, and annual energy consumption
As part of the energy and indoor climate survey recently carried out in Sweden (the ELIE study) a simple, inexpensive but reliable passive sampler for estimating monthly averages of relative humidity has been developed. The diffusion sampler consists of a 5 ml plastic tube prepared with lithium chloride monohydrate as trapping medium. After necessary calibration of this particular design of sampler the relative humidity can be calculated from the weight change of the sampler, the time of sampling and the average temperature during this period.
A "fungal index" is proposed as a new climate parameter for the characterization of the indoor environment. The index quantifies the environmental conditions in relation to the ability of fungi to grow by means of the response of a xerophilic fungus Eurotium herbarioriun. The growth response of this fungus was found to be climate-dependent. The indoor environment in a residential building in Japan (1991-1992) was quantitatively assessed by this approach. In the assessment, the variation in microclimate, which differs greatly within and between rooms, could be demonstrated.
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