After describing smoke hazards, this document gives for the designers the basic principles of smoke management in atriums. Requirements of the Canadian building code are also described.

Seven air supply and return diffusion layouts were tested to determine their effects on air distribution, air change efficiency and ventilation efficiency for workstations in an open-plan office. This document describes and comments the results of these measurements.

Current approach for design and installation of mechanical ventilation systems in houses is described in the framework of Canadian building codes and standards, which contain requirements about air change rates, air distribution, sound level, interference with other systems or building envelope.

Measurement were operated in Ottawa’s Laurier House (an historical house built in 1878 now being a museum) to determine the temperature and humidity conditions under which condensation occurs on ‘historic’ windows. Results lead to recommendations for oper

This report gives a comparison of the calculation methods used in 21 European countries for energy performance of buildings. It comments the differencies and similarities between these national procedures. Different aspects of calculation methods are analysed in details, including the way to calculate heat losses due to ventilation. Comments are given about the way by which calculations procedures are treating or taking into account points such as minimum ventilation rates, intermittent and demand controlled ventilation, air infiltrations, duct tightness, heat recovery, fan power.

Measurements were operated during years 2000 and 2001 on a full-scale test house on the site of BBRI (Belgium) in order to determine the pressures due to the wind on the roof. This paper presents the measurements results and the pressure coefficients obtained. Results are compared with the values of pressures on the roof given by the calculation method of Eurocode 1 (EC1).

Airflow measurements techniques are necessary to determine the most basic of inddoor air quality questions : "Is there enough fresh air to provide a healthy environment for the occupants of the building?" . This publication outlines airflow measurement techniques, but it does not make recommendations for techniques that should be used. The airflows that are discussed are those within a room or zone, those between or zones, such as through doorways (open or closed) or passive vents, those between the building and outdoors, and those through mechanical air distribution systems.

The quantitative determination of differential pressure and airflow for proper room pressurization is an HVAC design area that has not yet developed a standard rule.In this article current design guidelines and field practices for room pressurization are investigated. Practical field tests were performed in two types of facilities: a tuberculosis research lab and a cell transplant unit.

The excitation of pulsed plasmas for the air treatment (odors, toxic and volatile gases suppression, and sterilization) needs fast high electric pulse generators with powers that can require high repetition frequencies according to the applications .This paper shows that those solid state generators are today available. They use several technologies thanks to a global approach of the high power electronics physics and recent evolutions of active and passive components.

The heterogeneous photocatalysis relies on the activation of a half-conductor. The most often used is TiO2, with radiations of energy at least equal to the ones of the width of the forbidden band.The electronic changes due to that activation lead, in the presence of air, to the creation of oxygenated radicals. Those radicals attack the adsorbed organic compounds and degrade them. Starting from evaluations made with a laboratory photoreactor, this paper shows that photocatalysis is an appropriate method to purify air in domestic buildings (or other confined spaces).