renovation

According to the Article 6 of the 2002/91/EC – EP “when buildings with a total useful floor area over 1000 m2 undergo major renovation their energy performance is upgraded in order to meet minimum requirements ….” which should be derived “…in accordance w

French buildings highly contribute to the total national energy consumption. In order to inflect theincreasing tendency, significant efforts have been encouraged by public institutions.Accordingly, the GENHEPI concept, hereunder described, aims at methodically investigate retrofitoperations to ensure an effective renovation of existing buildings. Its first phase consists in preparingand elaborating projects development by a global energy approach. Modelling and sensitivity studiesof various technical solutions permit this analysis.

Energy renovation of existing buildings can be of varying value as regards improving thermal conditions and energy savings, and economic restrictions. A series of studies have been done since 1994 in Northern Greece, with its cold and prolonged heating season, aimed at approaching the problem and developing viable proposals. Public and mixed-use buildings act as so-called 'pilot-demonstrator' buildings in the study.

An intervention study was performed in a mechanically ventilated office building in which there were severe indoor climate complaints among the occupants. In one part of the building a new heating and ventilation strategy was implemented by renovating the HVAC system, and a carpet was replaced with a low-emitting vinyl floor material; the other part of the building was kept unchanged, serving as a control. A comprehensive indoor climate investigation was performed before and after the intervention.

In the past two decades, a group of health problems related to the indoor environment - generally termed sick building syndrome (SBS) - has emerged. We present an investigation of S BS in employees of a ministry working in a naturally ventilated office building that formerly had been used by a pharmaceutical company. A preceding environmental monitoring had failed to identify the cause(s) for the complaints. We conducted a questionnaire-based investigation and categorized the building sections and rooms according to their renovation status and their former use, respectively.

The goal of this project was to improve the quality of indoor air in a multistoried residentialbuilding of 81 flats built in 1960. The building is located in a heavily built urban area ofHelsinki. The building had a mechanical exhaust ventilation system without outdoor air inlets.A questionnaire was sent to occupants and a condition survey was made prior to renovation. Themain indoor climate problem was draught with a prevalence of 60 %. Other almost as commonproblems were traffic noise also during nights and dust coming from the street.

The results from the Norwegian project "Indoor Environment in Schools" show a reduction from about 80 % to 55 % in complaints of poor indoor air quality just after renovation, and to 10 % after another year. There was clear accordance between the renovation enterprise with the measured indoor climate and the pupils own opinion of the working environment. Norwegian authority has set a limit of CO2-concentration to 1000 ppm, and our results indicate that the amount of outside air has to be 9 Vs per person to be sure of getting under this limit.