Real-time ventilation and infiltration measurements were made on ten single-family homes. Seven of these had crawlspaces and were in the Pacific Northwest Two had daylight basements and were also in the Pacific Northwest. The other is an energy efficient demonstration "smart" house built in Rocklin, CA, and was built on a crawlspace. All of the homes were tested under heating season conditions. The home in Rocklin was also tested under cooling conditions. Each house was divided into multiple zones, including buffer spaces, and each test period lasted about a week.

The provision of ventilation air for high-rise multifamily housing has plagued retrofit practitioners and researchers alike. How does one determine whether sufficient levels of outdoor air are being provided to all apartments in a building? And how does one know whether the systems can be retrofit to improve their energy efficiency without compromising air quality?

Detailed field measurement of air leakage and electric forced-air heating system efficiency in nine Pacific Northwest manufactured homes built to adapted Model Conservation Standards were conducted during the 1994 and 1995 heating seasons. The research measured directly both heat delivery efficiency and system efficiency (as defined by ASHRAE in its HVAC Systems and Equipment Handbook) with a short-term alternating coheat test. For this test, a home is alternately heated with the furnace and then with an array of small electric heaters placed in each room which has a supply register.

Manufactured homes, often referred to as HUD-code homes, are continuing to grow in importance as a national housing resource and represented 23% of all new home construction in 1995. In spite of groundbreaking work to characterize the performance of air distribution systems in site-built housing, in new manufactured homes, the subject has been largely ignored. Field data was gathered from 24 typical new HUD-code homes in four regions in the continental United States. This study describes air distribution system losses estimated through an analysis of system and distribution efficiencies.

Equivalent leakage areas (ELAs) of 50 Russian apartments were measured under three conditions: 1) as found, 2) exhaust vents sealed, and 3) vents, electric boxes and windows sealed, in 12 buildings of similar construction. Distributions of ELA per unit of apartment volume are presented for the three conditions. Apartment ELAs were found to vary slightly with floor, indicating that the level of occupant-applied weatherstripping is a function of occupants' perception of infiltration rates and that lower floor occupants perceive larger infiltration rates than upper floor occupants.

A new method of test for residential thermal distribution efficiency is currently being developed under the auspices of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). This test method will have three main approaches, or "pathways," designated Design, Diagnostic, and Research. The Design Pathway uses builder's information to predict thermal distribution efficiency in new construction.

The use of computers for simulating building thermal behavior started early at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. The first example of such use dates from a 1957 study of an exterior wall exposed to solar radiation. The simulation program, later named BRIS, has gradually evolved with regard to the users and growing computer capacity. It has been used since the early sixties for research projects, design work and development of new systems, among others the ventilated hollow-core slab (Thermodeck) system.

We present a simple model to calculate the energy loss by free cooling at night. The time dependence of the exhaust air and wall surface temperatures is predicted by a simplified dynamic model that couples air flow, heat transfer, and wall temperature. For given ventilation rate the model predicts that the total heat extracted from the building during the night can be maximized by increasing the heat exchanging surface area and the thermal effusivity, of the wall materials. The influence of ventilation rate on the heat removed by freecooling at night is discussed.

Night cooling is a viable technique in the UK, but there is no suitable commercially available equipment. The BRE has been testing prototype ventilators and concludes that they work although weather, security and acoustics issues need to be addressed.        

As an introductory note, this aims to place the need for cooling for thermal comfort into the context of overall energy efficient building design. Additionally, it stresses the role of ventilation in meeting cooling requirements. Chapters are included on ventilation and cooling requirements; factors affecting cooling load; ventilation and cooling systems; and energy issues in ventilation and cooling, covering space cooling load, plant load and fan energy.