Energy renovation of existing buildings can be of varying value as regards improving thermal conditions and energy savings, and economic restrictions. A series of studies have been done since 1994 in Northern Greece, with its cold and prolonged heating season, aimed at approaching the problem and developing viable proposals. Public and mixed-use buildings act as so-called 'pilot-demonstrator' buildings in the study.

States that most whole building thermal modelling computer programs use simplified, one-dimensional, parallel path descriptions of the building envelope, which may generate serious errors in building load estimation for several structural and material configurations of building envelope components which have high thermal mass and/or two- and three dimensional thermal bridges.

Gives a report on thermal comfort and IAQ studies of an under-floor air-conditioning (UFAC) system in a hot and humid climate. In order to predict the airflow pattern of the supply air jet and to determine the occurrence of thermal stratification in the office room, thermal comfort parameters were measured at predetermined grid points within an imaginary plane. The authors also used Fanger's thermal comfort index to detect the occupants' thermal sensation, and measurements were made of the concentration levels of dust and carbon dioxide.

Outlines a study carried out in order to assess the impact of lighting energy savings on global energy consumption for office buildings. It is the result of combining both daylighting and thermal aspects in an integrated approach, and the present article concentrates on the simulation results. A modelling exercise was carried out for several facade configurations, for the four main orientations and three combinations of internal wall reflection coefficients. To perform the simulations, a daylighting simulation tool (ADELINE) was coupled with a dynamic thermal simulation software (TRNSYS).

Discusses commercial Scandinavian balanced ventilation.

An update on the situation for naturally ventilating garages for motor vehicles.

Outlines the Venturie effect for air flow in buildings.

Overview of ventilation strategy for a theatre building.

In France, the performance of ventilation systems in existing buildings is poorly understood today and rarely checked. This article shows how a verification method for ventilation system performance, currently in operation in Sweden, can be applied in France.

Explains the importance of taking into account several parameters, one of which being the effect of the installation of the ventilator into the circuit, when analysing ventilator energy consumption.