The role of metallic surfaces is not only to save energy in winter and in summer by separating the inside and the outside. New and inexpensive ways of collecting solar energy for internal heating, new ways of ventilating, heating and cooling through the fabric elements are described. Two very significant prospects are : radiative cooling by metallic surfaces and enhancement of indirect daylighting by optimised ceilings. The subject of the European CURES program is to promote these new technologies by simulating and testing them.

This paper presents the experimental results of the comparative study of three Passive Cooling Systems (PCSs) for the natural conditioning of dwellings carried out in Maracaibo, Venezuela. An experimental platform has been built to study the thermal performance of PCS. It includes: two full scale test cells, a meteorological station and an automated data acquisition system. The results are analyzed in terms of Indoor Characteristic Temperatures (JCT), Mean Cooling Potential (MCP) and the Cooling Performance Index (CPI) of each PCS.

A comprehensive concept for an energie and comfort orientated retrofitting is realised for an office high rise building ,,BS 4" (on campus at Braunschweig Technical University). This master plan will take the form of a research and developement projekt; a pilot realisation will be carried out on the 10th floor.

A systematic analysis of recently constructed dwellings in the Flemish Region has been undertaken within the SENVIVV-project (1995-1998). In total 200 dwellings have been examined in detail. The study involved various aspects: energy related building data (thermal insulation level, net heating demand, installed heating power, .. ), indoor climate (temperature levels in winter and summer), building airtightness, ventilation, appreciation of the occupants, . . . This paper especially focuses on the results for thermal insulation, airtightness and ventilation.

Natural ventilation can be a part of a strategy for a good indoor air quality. It can also be a way to realise night time ventilation during warm periods. In this latter case, the aim is to cool down the thermal mass of the building to obtain a better thermal comfort during daytime. Night time ventilation requires high ventilation rates and sufficient accessible thermal mass. The ventilation openings have to be well designed to avoid undesirable effects like rain, pollution and burglary.

Indoor air pollution in residential environments caused by chemicals, such as formaldehyde and

Exposures to respirable suspended particles (RSP) and both the particulate and vapour phases of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) were monitored in eight European cities. Over 1500 housewives and office workers participated in the studies by wearing personal monitors over a 24-h period to assess exposures in the home and workplace. Based upon median 24-h time weighted average (TWA) concentrations, the most highly exposed subjects throughout Europe were office workers living and working with smokers.

The purpose of this work is to see the influence of the heat preservation in the cold season and also to show the building material influence on the indoor radon concentration in dwellings. Three methods were used to measure the radon content in houses and buildings (workplaces). The results of measurements show that in the winter season the indoor radon concentration is about 2 times higher than in the summer season for these regions from Transylvania.

This investigation was carried out on a mechanically ventilated office building with a high prevalence of occupant symptoms. The commonest complaints were of dry air, stuffy air and noise. Occupant symptoms, however, were most strongly associated with reports of dusty air and static electricity. Allergic and asthmatic people suffered the most. Cleaning standards were high, and upgrading the air filters failed to give improvements in occupant symptoms. Air flows to the rooms were adequate, but air movements in the rooms were poor.

There is a risk that patients can catch a range of infections during any stay in a hospital. A recent UK Office of Health Economics report highlighted that 10% of in-patients contract a hospital acquired infection from one source or another. There are many sources of infection but one specific route is via the surgical wound during an operation. Bacteria can be carried from the source to the wound site by currents of air causing post-operative infection at a later date.