It is difficult to evaluate the effect of indoor environmental quality on productivity by measuring only taskperformance. In this study, the monitoring of cerebral blood flow during task by Near InfraredSpectroscopy is introduced as one of the objective evaluation methods of workers human responsethat are factors affecting task performance.

Radon short-lived decay products generated from the earth is one of the serious indoor air pollutantsin Europe and US. We measured natural radioactive substance and main indoor air pollutants in thefacilities of Sapporo and Nagoya City. The main measured items were composed of 1) air temperature,2) air humidity, 3) CO2, 4) CO, 5) HCHO, 6) VOCs, 7) airborne fungi,8) airborne bacteria, 9) SPM and10) Rn and Rn-Dts. The subjected spaces were laboratories, lecture rooms, libraries, museums, publicunderground spaces, closed spaces without window and outdoors.

Flame retardants have been used in polymers to reduce the flammability of plastics, building materials,fabric and papers. In recent years, organophosphate flame retardants were used as substitutes forBrominated Flame Retardants. The consume amounts of organophosphate flame retardants in 2001was about 5 times than that of 2000 in Japan. Recently, several studies have shown the carcinogenicityand neurotoxicity of organophosphate flame retardants. Reducing the risk of fire is the main advantageof using organophosphate flame retardants.

The groundwater heat pump (GWHP) system is an open-loop system that draws water from a well orsurface water, passes it through a heat exchanger and discharges the water into an injection well ornearby river. By utilizing the relatively stable temperature of groundwater, this system can achieve ahigher coefficient of performance and offers a more energy-saving solution than the conventionalair-source heat pump (ASHP) system. On the other hand, its performance significantly depends on thecharacteristics of the groundwater and the underground thermal properties.

There is increasing number of people suffering from “Sick-building Syndrome” in Japan. Therefore, we started “Chemi-less Town Project”, building a model town in which buildings are constructed with fewer chemicals. In this paper, we introduce the backgrou

This paper presents a study of the impact of urban warming upon energy consumption forair-conditioning in the home, using a numerical simulation model. The results are as follows. 1) In citiesother than Sapporo and Sendai, about 50% of the total hours of occupancy were ventilation hours, andabout 20% to 40% were cooling hours. As a result, the total energy consumption for cooling wascomparatively large. 2) In these other cities, cooling hours increased in the summer as the outdoortemperature rose.

In order to determine the causes of SHS (Sick House Syndrome), a field survey on indoor air quality and occupants’ health conditions was investigated in 60 houses in Japan. As a result, when houses that more than one occupant are “SHS” count as “Sick Hous

In 2003, Hong Kong was hit by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) from which many peopledied. The Hong Kong Government subsequently set up a Governmental Team Clean Committee toinvestigate possible urban design policies. Team Clean charged the task to the Planning Department,HKSAR. It initiated a study titled: Feasibility Study for Establishment of Air Ventilation Assessment(AVA) System. In 2003, the research contract was entrusted to a team of researchers of Departmentof Architecture, CUHK. A number of focused studies were conducted.

Coupling CFD and multizone models can avoid their respective drawbacks in predicting airflow andcontaminant concentrations distribution in buildings. Two kinds of boundary conditions are commonlyexchanged between them. The multizone model can give either pressure or mass flowrate boundaryconditions to CFD. This study analyzes in detail the impact of each of the boundary types on the CFDdomain, and compares them with a full CFD simulation without coupling.

In this study, I surveyed household energy consumption and related indicators in various western andAsian countries. In the western countries, household energy consumption shows a trend towardsaturation, but in the Asian countries it is likely that household energy consumption will continue to rise.In rural areas of Asia, especially because the energy infrastructure has not yet been completed, theremay also be, on the positive side, opportunities to encourage acquisition of innovative energy systems.