English

Asks the question, is home energy conservation a good investment, and offers two approaches to economic analysis - 'payback' and 'life cycle costing', that can help to simplify the decision making process.

Factsheet on the solar greenhouse, including an introduction to the design differences between solar and traditional greenhouses, and sections on the attached solar greenhouse, the role of conservation, solar greenhouse additions: zoning, siting the solar greenhouse, design of the solar greenhouse, framing, building permits, foundation and structure, glazing, thermal mass, heat transfer, summertime operation and cost and performance.

Reports a one-day seminar addressing 'The character and control of indoor air pollution', involving experts from both the public and private sector. Summarises the problems, the pollutants involved and some possible solutions.

Describes an investigation to show that the hourly, daily and monthly energy needs of simple buildings can be estimated using only limited available weather data for the location. The data needed are the mean daily maximum and mean daily minimum temperatures and the average clearness index for each month. Uses a residential building in Ottawa, Canada for the analysis, using a computer program ENERPASS.

Laboratories with chemical fume hoods can have HVAC systems designed for variable air volume (VAV) for the optimum in safety and cost savings. Various VAV designs are discussed with their associated advantages and disadvantages. Controls for providing VAV operation of fume hoods are outlined. A computer simulation of the energy usage for constant vs. variable volume hood operation is performed. The energy and cost savings are discussed along with a construction cost comparison of constant volume with variable volume.

The Sick Building Syndrome (SBS-syndrome) as defined by a WHO working group is discussed, and the existence of a sub syndrome is postulated, based on observations reported in the literature. This sub syndrome relates mucous membrane irritation - sensory irritation, dryness in nose and eye, which are very frequent symptoms within the Sick Building Syndrome - to the totalconcentration of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of the solvent type. This VOC syndrome may include other until now unidentified symptoms.

Too high a concentration of certain gases (e.g. water vapour, carbon dioxide, tobacco smoke, alcohol, etc.) in public buildings can damage the health. Even low concentrations can cause discomfort and make the room air seem unpleasant. This paper describes this subjective perception of air qulaity. It is shown that installation of an appropriate sensor can make substantial energy savings.

Ventilation by displacement is described in terms of ventilation efficiency and quantified by means of a two-zone flow and diffusion model. The practical procedure is by means of adequate diffusers firstly, to 'hit' the persons with the ventilation air and secondly, to displace both air and contaminants out of the zone of occupation and avoid recirculation. This procedure has a firmbasis in the research work on ventilation efficiency that is carried out inNorway and Sweden during the last years as well as in current theory practice.

The advancement of tracing techniques enabled the problems associated with local and general ventilation in industrial premises to be tackled with accuracy. The purpose of this article is to present, on the one hand, the various measurement techniques of helium tracing used by the CEA and the INRS and, on the other hand, to give some examples of application.

The computer-aided ventilation system design requires the programming of a large number of empirical tables and observations on the use of mathematical expressions which describe numerous ventilation parameters. In order to use computers with efficiency and to reduce programming inessentials, a set of numerical approximations are developed. These expressions are divided intotwo categories: 1) external variables and 2) system variables. The external variables are basically the duct resistance calcultions.