A comparison of residential ventilation codes and standards requirements in cold climate areas of the United States of America, Canada and selected northern european countries

The study reviewed each Code/Standard with respect to requirements relating to acommon set of ventilation factors and criteria. The main factors include the following:1. Protection against Depressurization - given the increase in more tightly built homes,how do the differing C/S protect against combustion gas spillage into the dwelling.2. Ventilation Capacity - what are the requirements for total mechanical air changerates, and high and low airflow capacities?3. Contaminant Removal - what exhaust requirements are there for specific rooms inthe dwelling?4.

Unravelling airtightness

With the application of part L2 of the Building Regulations in the UK, new buildings with excessive air leakage have no longer been acceptable. All new commercial and public building over 1000 m2 must be tested for airtightness. An air permeability formula measures the envelope of walls, roof and ground floor area. This paper explains why bother about air leakage, and what desginers and constructors must do, and how the testing for airtightness should be carried out. The essential message is : build tight - ventilate right.

Underfloor & Overhead Ductless VAV Systems

In the 1970's variable-air-volume (VAV) revolutionized the use of air-conditioning for commercial buildings. Now a new revolution is underway with the ductless VAV systems.This article describes the two main types of ductless VAV systems (underfloor and overhead) and explore their benefits such as easier design, lower energy consumption, reduced building-faade costs, improved air quality.

Ventilation and air leakage

Buildings leak water and air : it is normal and impossible to avoid. So the architect and HVAC engineer's goal should be to recognize the concept of building air leakage and account for it in :- quantifying leakage- reducing it if excessive- controlling leakage by managing air pressures with the HVAC system.The aim of this article is to discuss the methods for measuring and expressing leakage and to report the results of a cas study, San Carlos Park elementary school in Fort Myers, Florida.

New european project on advanced concepts for SUstainable Building RETrofit (SUBURET)

The scope of the program SUBURET is to develop tools and design methods for advanced retrofit, to demonstrate successful retrofit concepts and to perform a technical and social evaluation.

Energy efficiency and IAQ - Simultaneous improvements in relocatable classrooms.

The aim of that study was to demonstrate the potential to design buildings that can simultaneously improve indoor environmental quality along with a reduction of energy. In that order 4 energy-efficient relocatable classrooms were designed and constructed, each equipped with two different HVAC systems (heat-pump air-conditioning system and an energy-efficient indirect/direct evaporative cooler). Results are presented.

Demonstrating automated faults detection and diagnosis methods in real buildings

The objective of the annex 34 was to develop HVAC fault detection and diagnosis tools, which are closed to commercial products. The approach was to design a number of different computer based demonstration systems that could be interfaced to HVAC processes in buildings. By monitoring the operation of these demonstration systems, researchers were able to test a variety of fault detection and diagnosis methods and technique in a real environment, find possible shortcomings and obtain new ideas for further development.

Advanced ventilation and integrated energy systems for low energy retrofit buildings. A summary from the Sustainable Building Retrofit (SUBURET) Workshop

In the frame of the IEA Future Buildings Forum, a workshop was held January 15 -17 2003 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The goal of the proposed workshop was to discuss and to decide upon an international collaboration to promote a program for advanced retrofit of existing buildings and community systems.
The proposed topics dealing with energy conservation and renewable energy use in retrofit buildings were:

Truth and myth about IAQ

In this one-page paper the author points out the misinformation related to IAQ. He gives a liste of myths and truths about it.

EU FP6-proposal "BRITA in PuBs" positively evaluated by the Commission

The objective of the BRITA in PuBS proposal on Ecobuildings is an increasing of the market penetration of innovative and effective retrofit solutions to improve energy efficiency and implement renewables, with moderate additional costs.

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