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This review examines the available information relating to the ingress of external pollutants into naturally ventilated buildings. It is part of a project whose longer term aim is to provide guidance on ventilation strategies for naturally ventilated buildings in polluted urban areas. The purpose of the review is to guide this project.

NatVent™ is a European JOULE project that has studied ways of 'Overcoming technical barriers to low energy natural ventilation in office-type buildings in moderate and cold climates'. A consortium of nine partners across seven countries - Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland - carried out this project. It set out to:

An innovative energy management program has been successfully implemented at Mount Isa Mines, Mount Isa. Situated in Australia's north-western Queensland, remote from any electrical grids, Mount Isa Mines, owned by M.l.M. Holding Ltd, relies on electricity generated through its own two power stations. In 1988- 1990 the company was faced with a pressing requirement to reduce both operating costs and carbon dioxide emissions.

The Tokyo Gas Kohoku NT Building, completed in March 1996, was built with the objective of achieving overall savings of energy and natural resources throughout the entire life cycle of the building, from construction to demolition. The building is expected to reduce primary energy consumption by 35% and lifecycle co2 emissions by 25%. This was combined with the positive use of natural energy sources and the introduction of a cogeneration system with an absorption chillerheater using waste heat as input for its generators.

The Energy Diagnostic System (EDS) automatically reviews the energy condition of a building and performs some simple diagnostics. The system contains a thermal model of the building that has been determined earlier in a learning period of approximately 90 days after the installation of the system. This model calculates the reference energy consumption. The energy condition is determined by comparing the measured energy consumption with this calculated energy consumption.

The Doxford Solar Office is claimed to be the first in Europe with an integrated photovoltaic facade and an holistic energy strategy. How has the building performed since completion?

Ventilation system designers may be guilty of professional negligence by working with inaccurate noise data and, even worse, they may be unwittingly causing Sick Building Syndrome. Ewen Rose reports