English

While various VOCs are known to show neurotoxic effects, the detailed mechanisms of VOCs onautonomic nervous system have not been fully understood partly because objective and quantitativemeasures to indicate neural abnormalities are still under development. Nevertheless, heart ratevariability (HRV) has been recently proposed as an indicative measure of the autonomic defect. In thisstudy, we used HRV as an indicative measure of the autonomic defect to relate their values to thepersonal concentrations of VOCs measured by a real-time VOC monitor.

In this paper, experiments and simulations for moisture buffering of the gypsum boards is described.The small chamber (4.62 m3) installed the gypsum board on the interior surface was used for theexperiments. This chamber was located in a climate chamber. The ambient condition of the smallchamber was controlled at constant temperature and humidity. In the experiment for the relationshipbetween moisture buffering and ventilation rate, three cases of ventilation rate, i.e. no ventilation, 1.01/h and 5.0 1/h, were investigated.

For energy conservation and good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), it is crucial to improve Outdoor Air Quality(OAQ). For achieving good OAQ in urban areas, wind flow patterns among buildings should beimproved as well.In this paper, effects of building layout on outdoor thermal climate and air quality are investigatednumerically. In addition to the environment around pedestrians, enthalpy of outdoor air introduced intobuildings and its air quality are examined from the standpoint of IAQ.

This research describes the effects of injecting rigid polyurethane foam into walls and fitting doubleglazing or inner panes to sash windows as simple renovation methods for houses, based onestimations of CO2 emissions from heating/cooling and LCCO2 (Life Cycle CO2). We estimated CO2emissions and LCCO2 up to 2020 in Japan and obtained the following results.(1) Injecting rigid polyurethane foam into walls in detached houses, where there is little thermalinsulation, reduces the LCCO2 significantly.

This paper describes a series of field measurements investigating the ventilation rates and indoor airquality in four newly built secondary schools in England. In these schools each with a differentventilation strategy - measurements and calculations were performed to determine the variation inventilation rates during the school day. All the schools were assessed for compliance with the recentlyadopted Building Bulletin 101 which defines the set of criteria in relation to the ventilation rates andindoor air quality in new school buildings.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ), subjective satisfaction of occupants and energy conservation ofbuildings are usually determined separately. Since the energy crisis in 1973, engineers haveendeavored to implement energy conservation in buildings. Unfortunately, the effort resulted in energysavings without the fundamental delivery of indoor satisfaction in many cases. It is worthwhile todetermine a balance strategy between the potential energy saving and occupants satisfaction inworkplaces.

This study aims at investigating the actual conditions of indoor environment in schools in order to obtainfundamental information for proper ventilation design for buildings. Indoor environment of two newelementary schools in Tohoku district of Japan was investigated for a week in the winter of 2005.Temperature and humidity, concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), ventilation airflow rates,concentrations of chemical substances, and the opening condition of the windows and doors weremeasured and recorded in the three classrooms of each school.

The ordinary displacement ventilation system (DV) needs large installation spaces for large supplydiffusers with lower supply air velocity to avoid the draft discomfort at the foot level, and large supply airvolume to control allowable vertical temperature gradient within the occupied zone. Furthermore, theDV is difficult to heat without other warming means in the winter. The swirling induction type HVACsystem (SWIT) was developed as utilizing a compact air diffuser increasing the induction function bymeans of swirling air jets.

In North America, there are ~140 million homes and 4 million public buildings. More than one fifth of theenergy use in Canada is used to condition air whether from the cold in much of Canada or providecooling and heating where summers are hot and humid and winters are cold. To reduce greenhousegases and improve housing affordability, this energy use needs to be reduced. In 1981, the Federal andProvincial governments understood that science was needed to inform building codes in relation tooccupant health.

The necessity of promoting sustainable buildings is discussed in this paper from the viewpoint of theassessment of building environment performance. As the building sector generates hugeenvironmental loads, it is urgent to improve energy and resource efficiency in buildings. The concept ofEco-efficiency is introduced as a tool for evaluating the environmental efficiency of buildings.