English

Many modern office buildings have highly glazed facades. Their energy efficiency and indoor climateis, however, being questioned. Therefore more and more of these buildings are being built with doubleskin facades, which can provide: a thermal buffer zone, energy savings, wind protection with openwindows, fire protection, aesthetics, solar preheating of ventilation air, sound protection, pollutantprotection with open windows, nocturnal cooling and a site for incorporation of PV cells.

Double skin facades have become a major architectural element in office buildings over the last 15years. A double skin facade can provide a thermal buffer zone, solar preheating of ventilation air,energy savings, sound protection, wind and pollutant protection with open windows and nocturnalcooling. Commercial buildings with integrated double skin facade can be very energy efficientbuildings with all the good qualities listed above.However not all double skin facades built in the last years perform well.

The building sector constitutes approximately the 40% of the total energy consumption in EU. TheDirective 2002/91/EC provides a precise legislative framework for improving the energy performanceof the built environment. [1]It was adopted on December 2002 and entered into force in January 2003. According to the article 15of this Directive all member states have a time period of three years (till January 2006) to implementthe Directive in their own countries.

The objective of the paper is to present a new educational concept for improving the accessibility towhole building Heat, Air & Moisture (HAM) simulation models developed in the simulation environmentHAMLab. We provided a library of buildings, including the default performances of the buildingsthemselves, on a website. Students can select the most appropriate building, adapt the inputparameters, simulate and evaluate the results. In case a higher resolution is required, two stepsexplain how to implement respectively advanced controllers and HAM details.

Field measurements and recording of occupant thermal responses and behavioral actions in 4buildings clearly demonstrates adaptation: at higher outdoor temperatures, higher indooroperative temperatures are judged as comfortable by the occupants. The comfort voteshowever didnt relate well with the climate types Alpha and Beta as determined according tothe Dutch ATG guideline.

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate an ability of foliage plants quantitatively toremove chemical contaminants by experiments using a small desiccator for the different kindsof plant under the different luminescence and light sources, fluorescent, incandescent andlight-emitting-diode (LED) lamps. The foliage plants, Benjamin, Spathiphyllum, Areca palmand Concinna, cultivated in hydroponics were used.

Photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) tests have been carried out for toluene adsorbed on theactivated carbon fibers (ACFs) supported TiO2 photocatalyst in an environmental conditioncontrolled chamber. Through exploring the remnant of toluene and the accumulation ofintermediates on the TiO2/ACF catalyst including species, amount and their change processesunder different relative humidity (RH), this study aimed to explore the influence of RH on thePCO of toluene and the role of water vapor in the PCO process: PCO reaction paths and theaccumulation of intermediates on the TiO2/ACF catalyst.

When room ventilation is based on the stratification or zoning strategy, the ventilation airflow rate is determined on the grounds of the convection flows of the heat sources. Thus, inthe design phase of office ventilation, the convection flows of common office devices shouldbe known. Especially, to correctly dimension the ventilation air flow, it is important to knowthe volume flow rates. However, even if the convective power of an office appliance isknown, the cooling fan makes the prediction of the characteristics of the convection flow verydifficult.

In this study, energy consumptions associated with the change in outdoor air flow rate areanalyzed based on numerical methods. By employing the concept of ventilation effectiveness,possible reductions in the outdoor air load through reductions in the amount of outdoor airflow rate has been estimated. In addition, the effects of optimizing the capacity of HVACequipment on annual energy consumption and annual CO2 emissions have been analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the health and wellbeing implications of working in adeep plan office building in a temperate climate and illustrate how office design can add to ordetract from productivity.The authors have carried out post occupancy evaluation surveys on employees before andafter the move from a naturally ventilated, shallow plan office to a deep plan, air-conditionedoffice. The workforce and workload remained constant, which enabled true comparisonbetween building types.