The paper presents the results and analysis of the energy consumption of a newly designed office building in relation to quality of the indoor environment. The main energy consuming process in such a type of buildings is air-conditioning and cooling. The building was designed as a low-energy one, cooled by means of cooling ceilings. The architects and designers assumptions were checked by numerical simulation applying ESP-r software. Basing on the simulation results, the seasonal energy consumption was analyzed for different strategies of cooling.

China has been undergoing fast urbanization during the last three decades. Air tightness designequipped with air-conditioning units are currently popular in commercial rather than residential buildings to meet the policy needs of energy conservation. Meanwhile, indoor chemical contamination mainly derived from excessive interior decorating activities causes broad attentions to indoor heath concerns. This paper reviews the development of building ventilation and energy-conservation as well as indoor-air-quality (IAQ) related standards in China.

Air renovation inside buildings is crucial to have productive workers, since the lack of good indoor conditions affects human activity and promotes diseases (Fisk, 2000). This happens particularly in non-residential buildings where usually there is high occupation and thus big needs for fresh air. To achieve good indoor air quality (IAQ), actual ventilation solutions need a significant amount of energy, which is estimated to be about 10% of the total energy used in Europe (RESHYVENT, 2004).

Buildings are a man-made environment built innature. The relation between the indoorenvironment and outdoor nature has becomestrained since much energy was consumed inorder to create a comfortable and safe indoorclimate in the 20th century.It seems that as the indoor climate becomessafer and more comfortable, the more pollutedthe outdoor environment becomes, resulting in akind of structural dilemma in our society. Inother words, the separation of indoor andoutdoor space was expedited as air conditioningtechnology became prevalent.

The aim of this paper is to have a generaldiscussion of the status regarding energybuilding codes in relation to TAQ concerns.First, there is a brief discussion of the trends inenergy regulations and in IAQ concerns. Thenthe objectives and outcome of a recentworkshop on trends in national buildingventilation markets and drivers for change aregiven. This is followed by a brief overview ofsome areas where there might be majoropportunities but at the same time threats.Finally, information about 2 informationplatforms is given as well as some overallconclusions

The Energy Conservation for Buildings andCommunities Systems (ECBCS) is anImplementing Agreement among 23 countriesof the IEA (International Energy Agency) forenergy research and development in buildingsand communities. The ECBCS has nowcompleted 43 major international projectsresulting in demonstrated and adoptedtechnologies and tools with major impacts onenergy efficiency and environmental impacts inbuildings and communities. The ECBCS hasnow completed its 2008-13 strategic plan.

"At the G8 Hokkaido Toyal

In recent years, the insulation and air-tightnesslevels of newly constructed houses in Japanhave been improved for purpose of energysaving. However, a reduced design of airpermeability (i.e. a high level of air-tightness)will provide insufficient air through infiltrationresulting in a significant and negative impact ona social problem of sick house syndrome. TheJapanese Building Standard has been revised toreduce the concentration of Formaldehydewhich is considered to be one of the maincauses of sick house syndrome.

Air tightness is an important property ofbuilding envelopes. It is a key factor indetermining infiltration and related wallperformanceproperties such as indoor airquality, maintainability and moisturebalance. Air leakage in U.S. housesconsumes roughly 113 of the HVAC energybut provides most of the ventilation used tocontrol TAQ. The Lawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory has been gatheringresidential air leakage data from manysources and now has a database of morethan 100,000 raw measurements.

This paper describes the history and background of the ventilation requirements. Thepaper starts with an overview of existinginternational requirements. An analysis is madeabout the reasons and goals for ventilation.Ventilation strategies are discussed .The advisedstrategy is to ventilate only for unavoidablesources such as people in rooms and theirunavoidable activities, for instance cleaning,maintenance and personal care like cooking,bathing and showering. The history is of therequirements as well as the underlying studiesare described an discussed.