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The new Part 7 of the Thermal Insulation Standard DIN 4108 describes the permanent design of the airtight layer of heated or air-conditioned buildings. In the chapter on requirements, some terms have been redefined. However, the required values for the maximum air change rate are stipulated in the current EnEV...

To describe the quality of adhesive joints and connections for airtight layers, our research includes comprehensive investigations into the effect of different working conditions and accelerated aging. Existing methods for testing adhesion are analysed and adjusted. The evaluation of adhesives’ suitability for permanently...

Today, labels introduced in some countries to certify standardised low energy buildings, such as ‘Passive House’ in Germany and ‘Minenergie’ in Switzerland, are becoming increasingly applied in Europe.  Both labels explicitly require a threshold level of airtightness (0.6 air changes per hour (ACH) at 50 Pa). For timber frame...

The air tightness of building has been a serious problem over the last 30 years. In 1979 the international Air Infiltration Centre (AIC) was erected within the International Energy Agency (IEA) platform. Infiltration of cold air into buildings needs to be heated to reach to a comfortable indoor climate. But the energy penalty due to that should be...

We have developed a simple model to estimate ductwork leakage and heat conduction losses in steady-state conditions for a balanced ventilation system. Implemented in a spreadsheet, it allows us to calculate their impact on heat recovery efficiency consistently with EN 15241 without the need for a dynamic simulation tool. One case study...

This document presents a study for examining the viability of hybrid ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems that use solar thermal collectors as the supplemental component in heating dominated buildings. Loads for an actual house in the City of Milton near Toronto were estimated.

The mathematical model and design software tool KOLEKTOR 2.2 with user-friendly interface for detailed modeling of solar thermal flat-plate collectors has been built and experimentally validated for different solar thermal flat-plate collector concepts.

Since naturally ventilated buildings respond to site conditions and microclimate, there is no ”one set of spe-cific criteria” for every naturally ventilated building. So natural ventilation should be optimized to deal with ther-mal comfort in passive buildings during hot season.

In this work a numerical model, which simulates the buildings thermal response with complex topology and evaluates the indoor environment comfort, in transient conditions, is used in the energy and thermal comfort evaluation for different passive solutions in a kindergarten, in Summer conditions.

An  inverter-driven air-to-air heat pump model has been developped and implemented in the thermal simulation tool COMFIE, in order to compare the seasonal performance of a variable capacity air-to-air heat pump coupled with temperate air sources (crawlspace, attic, sunspace, heat recovery ventilation, earth-to-air heat exchanger) with the performance of a conventionally installed heat pump. The empirical model of the heat pump is presented in this paper, including full-load and part-load model at rating and non rating conditions, and also frosting conditions.