English

This technical monograph is one of a set produced as part of the ‘REVIVAL’ project – an EU Energie Programme supported demonstration project of energy efficient and sustainable refurbishment of non-domestic buildings in Europe. The monographs explore some of the main energy and comfort issues which arose during the Design Forums held with each of the six sites. The four monographs are entitled: 

If indoor radon levels are to be significantly reduced across Europe it is essential to ensure that allnew buildings built in areas affected by radon are protected against radon.In the United Kingdom the Building Research Establishment Ltd (BRE) have been carrying outresearch on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) todevelop protective measures for use in new buildings. This work commenced in the mid-1980sand has resulted in the development of a range of practical cost-effective techniques for providingradon protection in new UK buildings.

Radon as an indoor air pollutant has been extensively researched worldwide over the past thirtyyears. However, radon is only one of several other important pollutants present in the indooratmosphere. In addition to radon as an ubiquitous indoor pollutant, the simultaneous presence ofother non-radiological pollutants, such as toxic alkanes found in the working environment, needs tobe accounted for its integrated mitigation approach.

An 'active façade' responds to (and anticipates on) changing indoor and outdoor conditions. To assess the potential of such a façade for minimising energy consumption and improving indoor comfort, a simplified building simulation model has been developed, that combines the simplicity and understanding of easy to use programs with the flexibility and possibilities of advanced programs. To validate the program, it is applied to two ECN research facilities. The model appears to be able to adequately describe the thermal behaviour of both.

Traditional night cooling control strategies relies on the knowledge of the current situation – indoor and outdoor. The building is ventilated – passive or as free cooling via a mechanical ventilation system - with cool night air, hoping that the building  will warm up the  following day due to excess of free gains. In cool or moderate climates this often results in a thermal discomfort the next morning due to un- der-cooled constructions. As a consequence the sys- tem is often turned off.

This paper describes how a multi-zone air flow simulation program has been used for the evaluation of the performance of a hybrid ventilation system in a Swedish school. The idea was also to determine whether it is feasible for an HVAC consultant to apply a multi-zone air flow simulation program in a straight forward way. Before the analysis the tool was used to simulate the present state i.e.

This paper presents the application of multi-objective genetic algorithms for green building design to minimize two conflicting criteria: the life-cycle cost and the life-cycle environmental impact. Environmental impact categories considered in this study include energy and non-energy natural resources, global warming, and acidification. Variables focus on building envelope-related parameters. The application of multi-objective genetic algorithms is divided into two phases.

The aim of the presented work is to compare two solution methods of specific and latent heat transfer in building components e.g. walls, ceilings or floors. The effect of latent heat storage results from one or more layer made from composites with heighten heat accumulation. This additional heat accumulation follows that the selected layer is modified by incorporating Phase Change Materials (PCM) into its porous structure. The thermal behavior of phase change storage composites has been studied using numerical techniques.

This paper presents two DOE-2 functions to expand the modeling capability of DOE-2.1E, a popular calculation engine for building energy simulations. The first function models sensible and total heat recovery between outside air and exhaust air, with optional evaporative precooling of exhaust air before the heat recovery. The existing heat recovery of DOE-2 only allows preheating outside air when exhaust air is more than 10°F warmer than outside air.

Building simulation tools (energy, lighting, plant simulation, CFD, etc) have long been the preserve of a few specialist consultancies rather than being used where they can have the greatest impact - by construction design practices. This has resulted in additional costs for designers (time and financial) in terms of buying in specialist services.