Defective and energy inefficient windows, such as single-pane windows, can be responsible for up to 70% of a home's heating and cooling load. An innovative internal storm window system designed to reduce energy loss through single-pane windows was field tested in three occupied homes in the southeastern part of the United States to demonstrate its energy savings impact. The test results indicated that this system, called the "Winsulator" system, reduced window-related energy consumption for heating and cooling by 29%.

The Manchester Project involved the energy efficient rehabilitation and retrofitting of existing housing units plus the construction on vacant lots of new dwellings incorporating energy conservation measures. This project, in the Manchester neighbourhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began inthe late 19 70s and was completed in 1983. Energy use and air quality monitoring were carried out for one year after the completion of the project. It was found that in comparison to detached single-family houses using standard construction, energy savings of 75 to 80% were being realized.

Ekoporten, a block of flats converted into an experimental sustainable building, is now 2+1/2 years old. The building is one of the most visited and debated projects carried out in Sweden in recent years. With the support of the Swedish Council for Building Research, researchers from the Faculty of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (KTH) have followed up and documented the experiment.

The laminar flow for a backwards facing step is studied. This work was initially part of the work presented in [l]. In that work low-Reynolds number effects was studied, and the plan was also to include laminar flow. However, it turned out that when the numerical predictions of the laminar flow (Re= 118) was compared to the experiments of Restivo [2), we found a large discrepancy. We believe that there is something wrong in that experimental investigation.

The principal soil gases of current concern to building are radon and landfill gas. The flow of these is generally thought to be dominated by viscous flow driven by pressure differences. This paper compares analytical results presented in two previous papers, an experiment to measure the flow of gas in soil and an analytical result found by another technique. The results support the findings of the previous work.