Climatisation and natural ventilation concepts are today, in most countries, considered to be an essential aspect of the building project. In fact they are utilised to guarantee summer thermal comfort and indoor air quality control. Also there are many other advantages including low energy use, reduction of noise levels and easy plant maintenance. In recent years the use of hybrid ventilation systems in office buildings has been developed. The achievement of thermal comfort conditions in buildings is an important aim in order to satisfy occupants.

The orientation, size, and nature of vents in screened exterior wall systems are important to wall performance because these characteristics affect venting, ventilation and pressure moderation. The ventilation of screened wall systems has received very little attention in Canadian building research. With funding from CMHC 's External Research Program, the B uilding Enginee ring Group at the Uni versity of Waterloo undertook an experimental and theoretical study of vents and venting in screened walls.

Accurately controlling the amount of outdoor air brought into a building is a major factor in ensuring good indoor air quality (IAQ). However, controlling this minimum ventilation volume is difficult  variable-air-volume (VAV) systems.               

The use of energy for operating ventilation systems in underground car parks in Hong Kong is considered. A site survey has been carried out in 22 underground car parks. The physical size, configurations, and electrical rating of ventilation fans were the main mailers of interest. The indoor thermal environments, carbon monoxide concentrations, and operation of ventilation systems were examined. Mathematica/ expressions are developed and the predicted results examined for another 54 underground car parks.

A simple procedure to determine the best locations for the installation of smoke detectors in residential buildings is presented. Consideration is given to both detection of fires and audibility of the alarm.

Buildings with different mass levels were monitored in the summer of 1993 in Pala, South California, under different ventilation and shading conditions. The effect of mass in lowering the daytime (maximum) indoor temperatures, in closed and in night ventilated buildings, was thus evaluated. Night ventilation had only a very small effect on the indoor maxima of the low-mass building. However, it was very effective in lowering the indoor maximum temperatures for the high mass building below the outdoor maxima, especially during the 'heat wave' periods.

Air movement in a naturally-ventilated room can be induced through the use of a solar chimney or Trombe wall. In this work Trombe walls were studied for summer cooling of buildings. Ventilation rates resulting from natural cooling were predicted using the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) technique. The renoramlization group ( RNG) k-e turbulence model was used for the prediction of buoyant air flow and flow rate in enclosures with Trombe wall geometries.

Studies at the Oxford Brookes University have shown that opportunities for improving a building's fabric thermal storage performance relate more to aspects of its configuration, control and ventilation strategy than the choice of structural system.

Gives an overview of current developments into passive ventilation technologies within office buildings and their impact on current ventilation practices. Covers prevention of heat gains, modulation of heat gains, and heat dissipation.