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The Book of Proceedings of the 44^th AIVC - 12^th TightVent - 10^th venticool  Conference "Retrofitting the Building Stock: Challenges and Opportunities for Indoor Environmental Quality", held in Dublin, Ireland on 9-10 October 2024.

The Presentations the 44^th AIVC - 12^th TightVent - 10^th venticool  Conference "Retrofitting the Building Stock: Challenges and Opportunities for Indoor Environmental Quality", held in Dublin, Ireland on 9-10 October 2024.

Buildings account for a substantial portion of global energy consumption, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are responsible for approximately 40% of the buildings’ energy consumption. A building façade, with HVAC, has a great influence on the internal environment. An optimization of the façade design and operation can help improve building energy efficiency.

Following the pandemic of Covid-19, the scientific interest in ventilation rate of buildings, and especially in spaces with high occupancy, has increased. The creation of a healthy and acceptable internal environment, especially at workplaces is considered necessary, both to deal with the sick building syndrome, or the spread of various diseases, as well as to improve the comfort of employees.

Noticeably higher concentrations of gaseous pollutants were measured in bedrooms than living rooms, and in winter than summer, where p-values were found to be of a stringent significance (average p = 0.008). PM2.5 concentrations were found to be exceeding the WHO 24-h average threshold of 15 µg/m3 in kitchens for the week-long monitoring time (92% in winter, 51% in summer).

Urban heat island, with the associated urban overheating, is a well-documented phenomenon, which demonstrates the hazard related to local climate change and the related negative impacts at environment, economic, social and public health level, with heavier consequences on the low income and more fragile segment of the population. The phenomenon takes origin by the positive thermal balance in the urban built environment mainly, depending on the synergic effect of different causes.

We proposed a new design of an affordable apartment with a closed-vertical void to improve the indoor natural ventilation especially for the leeward side of the building and constructed a full-scale experimental house in Indonesia in 2020. This paper analyses the effects of the proposed ventilation system through field measurements in the experimental house. In the experimental house, the vertical-closed void with a width of 2.85 m was designed between the two rows of units.

Global and local climate changes affect the energy performance of buildings, especially during the warm season, with relevant increase of cooling uses in mechanically cooled buildings and discomfort hours in naturally ventilated ones. The ventilative cooling is proved to be a promising strategy to tackle this threat, however installing new ventilation systems in existing buildings is challenging in technical and economic terms. The strategy can be also pursued by motorized windows duly operated.

This study proposes the feasibility of a window-type liquid desiccant ventilation system for residential buildings. Using a LiCl solution, the system was designed and experimentally evaluated under hot and humid conditions. The results indicated a 19% reduction in relative humidity and effective latent heat removal, showing significant dehumidification performance. The system maintained its dehumidification performance even with reduced humidity, suggesting improved thermal comfort.

Window opening behaviour can have an important impact on residential energy use, especially in energy efficient dwellings. A few studies indicated that the window use may be a habitual behaviour, meaning that the behaviour is performed without conscious thought as a consequence of frequently repeating this action. Verbruggen et al. (2021a) developed an event-based residential occupant behaviour model (EROB) based on habits as present in Belgian dwellings, including a window opening model.