thermal comfort

Recent studies examined a liquid desiccant indirect and direct evaporative cooling assisted 100% outdoor air system (LD-IDECOAS) as an energy conserving alternative to conventional air conditioning systems. An IDECOAS was introduced as an environmental-friendly air conditioning system that uses latent heat of water evaporation to cool the process air. Recently, studies suggested the integration of a liquid desiccant(LD) system with an IDECOAS to overcome a cooling reduction in evaporative cooling performance in a hot and humid climate.

Heatwaves are often responsible for many deaths due to high temperature indoors. Energy savings is a key element in building design and refurbishment works to reduce the impact of climate change. Natural ventilation is often promoted as an indoor space cooling solution thanks to its energy saving potential.
The paper deals with prediction of heat-related health risks situations in naturally ventilated dwellings.

Ventilation air may be provided in buildings by means of natural or mechanical strategies. When a HVAC system is installed, thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) may be controlled with higher precision. However, especially between the 70s and the 90s, mechanical ventilation systems have been installed on formerly naturally ventilated buildings without providing any control for natural ventilation.

It is estimated that people spend 60-90% of their life in indoor environments. Therefore, it is obvious that indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort are of highly importance for the health and wellbeing of the population. Consequently, buildings should be designed to ensure proper indoor conditions. Furthermore, the need to mitigate climate change and to reduce energy import dependency, provides additional challenges for the design and operation of buildings and requires a dramatic reduction in their energy consumption and emissions.

Recently the international media like in USA, Canada, UK, Denmark, Germany etc. has been discussing the issue of differences between men and women regarding thermal comfort and the preferred room temperature. This presentation will discuss the issue of thermal comfort and the existing knowledge on the influence of gender, age, race, etc.

Aim of this work has been to determine the effectiveness of evaporative cooling and ventilation control strategies on a case study to ensure an adequate combination between energy efficiency and high levels of indoor comfort.
The case study has been a kindergarten, situated in the context of the climate continental Mediterranean area (Cerignola, Italy, 41°16'00"N, 15°54'00"E, 120 m asl), oriented on an east/west axis, classrooms south faced, and the services zone to north.

Natural ventilation is increasingly considered one of the most efficient passive solutions to improve thermal comfort in buildings. However in order to support its planning and implementation, quantitative analysis on airflow paths and heat-airflow building interactions are needed. This requires an adequate accounting of both internal effects, from building layout and structure, and external forcings from atmospheric factors.
This paper has dealt to analyze the potential of building automation systems for ventilative cooling of residential buildings.

According to the International Energy Agency, buildings represent over one-third of total final energy consumption. Thus, a more sustainable future begins with low energy buildings which must combine comfort and function using passive systems and new evolving technologies. Policies to reduce building energy consumption and carbon emissions have been developed worldwide during the last decades.

The most representative typology of residential buildings of Catalonia has been simulated in TRNSYS to evaluate the impact of both infiltration and natural ventilation. The typology is a block of apartments constructed during 1950-1980. 

This paper describes Post Occupancy Evaluation survey and physical measurements of five families living for one year or longer in five houses located in Germany, Austria, France and UK, all part of the Model Home 2020 project. The houses are built according to Active House principles and focus on high performance on indoor environmental quality, energy performance and environmental impact. The survey is carried out seasonally during the test year when the family lives in the house to capture seasonal variations. Physical measurements were made in all main rooms of the houses.