BRE, working with a group of industry and property representatives, have developed a simple method for assessing the likely energy efficiency of air conditioned and mechanically ventilated buildings. For new buildings, the method uses information available at the early design stages. It therefore provides designers with a tool to assess the implications of various plant and envelope options from the beginning. It can be used as a label or target for energy efficiency and, as such, as a means of assessing buildings in both voluntary systems such as BREEAM or perhaps in Building Regulations.

The BRE is developing an energy rating scheme for non-domestic buildings on behalf of the DoE, designed to encourage voluntary good practice and for possible future use within the Building Regulations. The scheme will allow building specifiers, occupiers and others to define and compare building performance in simple. terms. The UK programme is in its early stages, and a key part of its technical development and implementation involves consultation with a wide range of potential users. This paper outlines the policy and commercial needs driving the programme.

Interest in the UK regarding the design of passively ventilated and cooled buildings has resulted in much work on the thermal performance and likely environmental impact of such buildings. Little work assessing the impact of the passive design approach on the construction process has been undertaken. This issue is examined herein, through the initial development of a methodology quantifying the relationship between passive environmental control (PEC) and the construction process, leading to a means of classifying buildings according to their prefabrication strategy.

Thermoeconomics is a blend of thermodynamics with economics. The thermodynamic analysis uses the second law and the concept of exergy, the measure of usefulness of energy. Economics involves costing exergy flows in life costing techniques. The objective of thermoeconomics is to minimise a cost function, talcing into account capital, maintenance and running costs. Most of these are expressed in terms of thermodynamic variables of the system. This will establish the most cost effective design parameters.

The purpose of this paper is to present the energy required to condition a constant volumetric airflow and determine the variability of this energy due to changes in the design dry bulb and humidity setpoints. Hourly weather data from a typical year from 32 European locations and long-term data from 11 American locations were analyzed to determine the coincident dry-bulb and dew-point temperatures. These data were then analyzed to determine the heating, cooling and moisture removal energy requirements for a constant mass of airflow per hour.

This paper reviews the development of performance indices for fabric thermal storage from the original BRE office research data to the two mixed mode design options currently available, each having different design priorities, namely naturally ventilated or mechanically ventilated. Naturally ventilated mixed mode designs appear to be less suitable for UK locations and also appear to have significantly greater annual energy consumption. In addition to the comparison of energy consumption criteria, the paper also reviews recent Scandinavian indoor climate classifications.

This paper describes the objectives and research methodology of a 30-month research project carried out under the European JOULE programme with the involvement of seven countries with cold or temperate climate. The project aims to contribute to reducing energy consumption and consequent C02 emission in buildings by overcoming barriers preventing the wider uptake of technologies for natural ventilation (NV) and low-energy cooling and encouraging and accelerating environmentally-friendly natural ventilation and 'smart' controls as a main design option.

This paper examines key issues involved in evaluating benefits of tree planting programs from the perspective of electric utilities, as well as from a wider perspective of public and private entities that may benefit from such programs. The nation's largest shade tree program, sponsored by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in collaboration with the Sacramento Tree Foundation (STF), is used as a case study.

This paper compares energy and environmental awareness in two small towns in Sweden and Minnesota over time. In the early 1980s, Minnesotans were more anxious and exerted greater conservation efforts than the Swedes, but both are now bored with energy issues. They focus instead on environment-namely, recycling. Saving money continues to dominate decisions, but time is gaining priority in tradeoffs of energy, money, and time. Environmental concern is usually sacrificed to economics. Certain culturally-valued behaviors override both more conserving alternatives and economic considerations.

Comparative energy information is one method energy policymakers have employed to motivate consumers to reduce their energy use. The US appliance labeling program, for example, has used graphical displays to illustrate the differences in energy consumption among home appliances. Little is known, however, about how consumers interpret various graphical displays and/or how they use the information. Additionally, subtleties in the accuracy with which these graphical displays convey the underlying data have yet to be addressed in the research literature.