English

In many cases, it is possible to achieve a satisfactory comfort in summer in residential buildings with purely passive means (thermal inertia, solar protection, night ventilation). These parameters have to be taken into account at the earliest stages of building design, which requires guidance documents and simplified tools. We developed both, on the basis on a simple RC model with a particular attention paid to the impact of the outdoor noise (related to the windows opening at night).

ATEOUE is a French working group created in June 1993 by the Ministry of Housing in order to harmonise and to facilitate the develop merit of tools concerning the improvement of building environmental quality (assessment methods, books of specifications, recommendations, etc. ... ). The methodological aspects play an important role in ATEQUE. ATEOUE is composed of the authorities concerned, and of 26 members representing all the categories of building professional actors (researchers, manufacturers, owners, designers, builders, consultants, service providers).

The objective of the RESET project was to quantify the savings that could be made by resetting the energy related controls of buildings to their original or optimum settings. The method was to identify a range of office buildings and carry out energy and management audits. Advice was given on incorrectly set controls, and estimates were made of the potential savings if the controls were set correctly. Cost savings of between 10% and 30% were almost always identified and could be made at little or no cost.

Renewable energy, Rational Use of Energy, and Sustainable 'Design are aspects for the coming building programmes, among many other qualitative aspects. How could sustainable use of energy be integrated in planning and building process?

The problem of optimal insulation thicknesses is one of the simplest that can be addressed by energy analysis. The authors begin with a simple analytical approach, and go on to describe detailed numerical work, based in the definition and parameterisation of a standard dwelling. Sensitivity of the results to large uncertainties in embodied energy data and building lifetime are investigated. The first conclusion is that insulation thicknesses in UK buildings are suboptimal in energy terms. This conclusion appears to be robust.

This paper describes the measured and calculated results of air humidity and profiles of tracer gas in a residential apartment in Taipei city, Taiwan. A complete multizone indoor air quality model was used to evaluate the test results. The concentration of C02 were employed to investigate the indoor pollutant transport. Also, the indoor air humidity was studied in order to evaluate the indoor moisture effects on human. The data from the measurements were used as simulation input data for the calculation of indoor air flow rates and pollutant concentrations.

Building refurbishment mainly concerns physical and functional building components but should also take into account various topics such as energy consumption, pollutant emission and operational waste reduction as well as air quality and spatial comfort. Against this background, the European project EPIQR offers a new concept which should allow architects to approach the refurbishment of residential buildings with a global view of the whole process. In any refurbishment process, the preparation phase is of utmost importance.

The use of air-conditioning is known to be an energy-intensive solution to the problem of providing thermally comfortable conditions in buildings. This has led to the adoption of new techniques, such as displacement ventilation and chilled ceiling systems as a means for providing the cooling requirements. In addition, benefits are gained in terms of indoor air quality and comfort. However, there is a lack of information about the effect that chilled ceiling has on displacement air flow, and the corresponding implications for occupant thermal comfort.

New office buildings in Spain are nearly always designed to be air conditioned. The architect Emilio Miguel Mitre Associates (EMMA) has designed a building which avoids air conditioning, thereby reducing energy demand. The design uses the principles of high thermal mass combined with night ventilation, reduction of solar gain during the summer months, high levels of insulation, evaporative cooling, and buried pipes to provide cooling when the external temperature rises above 30°C.

Increasing demands for energy saving and a higher degree of comfort in rooms compels designers or architects to use more sophisticated analysis methods. The measurement in situ, numerical simulation (CFO), and wind tunnel investigations are three of methods which are always utilised to analyse or to assess air flow in rooms and their environment. However, these methods remain generally very difficult for the majority of the designers or the architects.