A Tool Kit was developed to assess indoor air quality. The Tool Kit was designed to be robust, reliable, universal and to provide data that could be linked with other studies assessing health, social factors and building conditions for any given locality. A case study using the Tool Kit to assess 116 Local Authority houses is described.

Infiltration has traditionally been assumed to affect the energy load of a building byan amount equal to the product of the infiltration flow rate and the sensible enthalpydifference between inside and outside. However, laboratory and simulation research hasindicated that heat transfer between the infiltrating air and walls may be substantial, reducingthe impact of infiltration.

The prediction of energy use, air flows and temperatures in different rooms of a building andat different climatic conditions is very important, especially when evaluating new conceptsfor heating and ventilation systems in combination with different building envelopeconstructions. A thorough system analysis considering coupled air flow and thermalcalculations becomes very complex if e.g. thermal bridges and dynamic conditions areconsidered.

The paper presents a short description of the measurement program and the data collected for the “SynergieHaus”-project initiated by PreussenElektra and partners (now merged to E.ON). Results of airtightness measurements (ACH 50-values) are shown for a to

In the recent past new concepts for the building envelope have been developed with theunderlying wish to improve the energy performance of a building as well as comfortconditions in the inner spaces. Examples are: solar walls, high-tech window systems, doublefacades and integration of daylighting systems and of PV-panels. In this paper the doublefacade concept is discussed.This kind of facade is considered as a device to be used for pre-heating the ventilation airduring winter as well as for nocturnal cooling of the building during summer.

The move towards improving building air-tightness to save energy has increased theincidence of poor indoor air quality and associated problems, such as condensation onwindows, mould, rot and fungus on window frames. Mechanical ventilation heat recoverysystems (MVHR) combined with heat pumps offer a means of significantly improving indoorair quality as well as providing heating and cooling required in buildings.This paper is concerned with the testing and performance of a novel ventilation heat pumpsystem developed for the domestic market (1,2,3).

In 1998 the Dutch ventilation industry launched a new generation of domestic ventilation systems on the market with high efficiency heat recovery applying counter flow heat exchangers and DC fans. It is expected that these ventilation systems will play an important role in realising the goals of the Dutch national energy policy for reducing energy use in the built environment. Another important aspect is the contribution to a healthy indoor environment in dwellings with an extreme high energy efficiency, especially in relation to increasing air tightness and thermal insulation.

A Ventilated roof component was built and tested in the outdoor testing facilities (Test Cells) of CRES, Greece. A conventional Greek roof structure of the same area was also installed in the roof of the Test Cell allowing simultaneous measurements in order to perform a comparative study of the performance of the two parts. Different configurations in the Ventilated roof were investigated, like ventilation air gap height and application of a radiant barrier. The tests carried out under summer weather conditions will be discussed in this paper.

The relative importance of ventilation in the energy balance of buildings has been increasing,as a consequence of control of heat exchanges through the envelope and internalgains. It is therefore very important to clearly understand the main factors that affect energyconsumption due to ventilation and potential ways to decrease the energy demand withoutaffecting IAQ.This study was developed within the European project TIP-VENT (JOULE).

The traditional way to dehumidify the outdoor air in an A/C-system is by cooling the air downbelow the dew point temperature. For this process a refrigeration system is necessary torealise these low temperatures. Nowadays the disadvantages of refrigeration systems fordehumidification are widely known. An alternative method to dehumidify the air is byseparating the process of dehumidification and cooling.The paper will present a testing plant of 1200 m air/h which is installed in the University ofEssen. This A/C-systems works with liquid desiccants.