Over the last decades, a great importance has been given to thermal insulation, in technological designing of building envelope. Lately, a basic requirement of indoor air quality, strictly related to ventilation control strategies, has been highlighted. Then, it is necessary to evaluate correctly, during the design phase, the air permeability of enclosures through validated methods, to assess new technologies through laboratory tests on prototypes and finally to verify real performances through on-site testings.

The present paper investigates the potential of night ventilation techniques when applied to full scale office buildings, under different structure, design, ventilation, and climatic characteristics. The approach of this study includes the use of both experimental data and theoretical tools in order to determine the impact and the limitations of night ventilation regarding the thermal behavior of various types of office buildings.

The present paper deals with one of the most important mechanisms of inter-zone mass and energy transfer, namely the buoyancy-driven flows through stairwells that connect the floors of buildings. To further investigate these phenomena, experimental as well as theoretical studies have been carried out. A series of experiments have been performed in order to study the airflow through a typical stairwell that connects the two individual zones of a two-storey house. Airflow rates between the two zones were measured using a single tracer gas decay technique.

Convective transfers mainly determine the energy and mass balances which regulate the micro-climate inside a greenhouse. Air flow and temperature patterns induced by natural ventilation through greenhouse roof openings are only considered here. Flow visualizations were performed on a half scale test cell simulating the absorption of solar radiation at the floor surface of a single-span greenhouse. Temperature and air flow patterns were observed in a steady regime i) with a single sided roof vent and ii) with two symmetrical one.

During 1997, an energy efficient building was designed, featuring energy conservation, passive solar heating, natural cooling and daylighting strategies. It is located in the province of La Pampa, in the temperate semi-arid region of central Argentina. The resulting compact design houses takes 634m2 of useful floor area with main spaces. An audience class, two laboratories, four research offices, one simple class and services make up the building. Solar windows are provided for all main spaces, except in the audience class. Clestories contribute to add solar gains and natural lighting.

The ventilation system of a 60 seats conference room was retrofitted to improve indoor air quality. The old, mixing type installation was replaced by a displacement ventilation system. However, the building layout did not allow an optimum location of air inlets and outlets. It was therefore interesting to measure the actual performance of the new system. Using tracer gas techniques, the age of air was mapped within the room, and the ventilation effectiveness was measured in various configurations. The actual air flow rates were also measured in the ventilation system.

In summer, it is possible to achieve a satisfactory comfort in residential buildings with purely passive means as thermal inertia, possibility of cross ventilation and solar protection of the external envelope. These parameters have to be taken into account at the earliest stages of building design.

This paper describes the results coming out of the European Commission supported THERMIE Target Project Energy Comfort 2000. This was the first Target project, containing eight non-domestic buildings, started in July 1993 and to be completed at the end of 1998. The project aimed to design and construct buildings which use less than 50% of the energy of a traditional equivalent, by using passive methods, particularly to avoid the need for air-conditioning. High quality internal conditions were to be achieved.

The greater availability of information and telecommunication technologies and the trend towards flexible working practices allow the home and the workplace to coexist. Many studies mainly emphasize economic and social consequences of teleworking. However, there is no assessment of energy and indoor climate impact of teleworking at home. Furthermore a professional activity is usually not envisaged at home, and home is not built according to the same building design process as offices. Consequently, teleworking at home raises new questions about the evolution of dwellings.

This paper reports the results of thermal comfort and indoor air quality studies in forty-three flights with a duration of more than one hour. The measurements were performed continuously during the whole flight (from the departure gate to the arrival gate) and the parameters monitored were temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. The results were then compared with the ASHRAE Standards for the thermal and indoor air quality.