CEN  TC247  has  prepared  draft  standards  for  main types of room controllers. These standards include a performance testing procedure that was designed to facilitate the introduction on the market of innovative controllers (adaptive controllers, fuzzy  controllers...).

In   this   paper,   we   present   a   new  method   of combining ASHRAE Room Energy Balance Method with 3-d airflow modeling to estimate the thermal comfort conditions of the emerging air- conditioning system that combines radiant cooling and desiccant dehumidification.

An optimal combination of the characteristics of an air conditioning system and the control strategy is necessary to minimize costs and the energy demand. Therefore a sequential control for such a system was developed, tested by simulation and implemented in an existing plant. The simulation runs have been done with TRNSYS.For the sake of comparison, an optimized control was calculated using a nonlinear optimization method. For this purpose, TRNSYS had to be combined with MATLAB  which includes some optimization
tools.

Energy  savings  from  the  use  of  daylighting  in commercial buildings are realized through implementation of photoelectric lighting controls that dim electric lights when sufficient daylight is available to provide  adequate workplane illumination. The dimming level of electric lighting is based on the signal of a photosensor. Current simulation approaches for such systems are based on the questionable assumption that the signal of the photosensor is proportional to the task illuminance.

Generally, geometrical data of the building do not constitute an usual detailed input for the thermal simulations, but nevertheless they become necessary as soon as accuracy is needed to take into account incoming solar energy, to measure the radiant exchange or to assess comfort. Our objective, in the elaboration of a new version of the thermal simulation SIMULA_3D code is to give the right place to the 3D geometric data to achieve such performances.

This   work   regards   the   development   and   the validation a simplified model for building cooling energy requirement. It aims to be as similar as possible to the procedure adopted for calculating the winter heating energy demand of the UNI-CEN standards. The latter, a procedure based on a steady- state model, including one or more corrective numerical-experimental correlations, that take into account in a simplified way – and thus approximately – the effects of thermal capacities on the phenomena under examination.

This  paper  describes  a  simplified  computational model to predict indoor air temperature distribution. This model is based on the energy conservation equation combined with a scaling analysis of the momentum equation. Three-dimensional domains can be discretized in a number of finite volumes and the energy balance is considered for each volume. The resulting set of non-linear equations is iteratively solved using the line-by-line Thomas Algorithm.

This   article   presents   the   first   application   of   the Sim_Zonal software, a tool for evaluating indoor temperature and air flow distributions for residential and office buildings. The aim of this EDF (Electricity of France) software developed with the LEPTAB (University of La Rochelle) is to evaluate comfort problems and specially risks of discomfort (risk of draught, indoor gradient temperature, etc..) for rapid technical appraisals. The tool development - under Windows 95 - is in progress.

This  paper  describes  the  "Self-aware  Buildings" (SAB) project. This is an effort to advance the state of knowledge and technology in the area of environmentally conscious and user-sensitive integrated building control systems. An evolving test bed (SAB cell), its systems, and its information infrastructure are described. Spicifically, simulation- based approaches toward the integrated control of complex building and indoor environmental systems are explored.