The present paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between building designers and simulationists by proposing a common framework for discussion. It is a positional paper written from a building designer’s viewpoint that basically agrees with the proposition that design is no longer dominated by physical structure thinking but by performance and system based concerns.

This work presents energy and exergy comparison of several design options for combination between dwelling ventilation and domestic hot water production. The dwelling ventilation uses mechanical exhaust with natural air supply (without heat recovery) or balanced ventilation with heat recovery. The outlet ventilation air is used as a heat source for domestic hot water, by using a heat exchanger or a heat pump.

The last object of this study is to develop standard method for building insulation performance on-site evaluation using Infra-red camera.

In this article, we would like to estimate the surface temperature and heat flow pattern of the four corner walls of building envelope with thermal bridge. In doing so, this study made use of infra-red camera and the heat transfer simulation. The field measurement using infra-red thermography shows thermal bridge and thermal insulation performance of each part of actual existing building envelope.

As a passive cooling strategy, natural ventilation is an energy conservation technology with great developing potential. The typical technologies of natural ventilation include night ventilation and natural ventilation with heat storing materials. The factors which affect ventilation include technique parameter, climate parameter and building’s parameter. The natural ventilation in summer in a typical building in Changsha City, which locates in hot summer and cold winter area, was measured.

It is the goal of climate-adapting buildings to make used of the natural regularity to decrease indoor temperature and improve thermal comfort. In the aviation building in Sanya airport, the control mode of thermal environment—combination of natural ventilation, air modulation by mechanical fans and air-conditioning is promoted. The CFD software PHOENICS is employed to simulate the potential of natural ventilation and air modulation by mechanical fans in different plans under typical meteorological conditions of Sanya in summer.

The updated ISO 13790 Standard is part of the new set of CEN Standards that supports the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requirement for a general framework for calculation of the energy consumption of buildings. The Standard sets out procedures for space heating and cooling energy calculations, allowing the use of three different methods: a simplified monthly quasi-steady state method, a simple-hourly method and detailed simulation. This paper examines the implications of allowing different methods to be used for assessing the energy usage.

This paper discusses a combination of a dynamic thermal model (HTB2) and a regional energy and emission auditing tool (Energy and environmental prediction model) to analyze the energy efficiency potential of different design strategies, in new or renovated projects. The main aim of the model is to enable decision-makers and other sectors in built environment to predict and account for energy use within a region so that overall strategies and schemes could be made beforehand to reduce energy and carbon dioxide emissions.

Nowadays, the use of translucent or transparent façades as lining of another façade is increasing.

In the framework of the IEA Task 32 (Solar Heating and Cooling Programme), we developed a numeric model to simulate heat transfer in phase change materials (PCM), and experimental data. The analyzed system is bulk PCM plunged in a water tank storage of a solar combisystem (heating and domestic hot water production). The numerical model, based on the enthalpy approach, takes into account hysteresis and subcooling characteristic and also the conduction and the convection in the PCM. This model has been implemented in an existing TRNSYS type of water tank storage.