Holonic Energy Systems (HES) refer to systems where distributed generation and centralized powergeneration are organically combined to establish optimal operation, based on a good balance betweenthe whole and its parts, but not on optimization of each part that is the conventional concept ofupgrades in a single energy source. This paper presents an outline of HES proposed by us and threemicrogrid verification test results demonstrated through the activities toward HES. On the test results,reduction rates of CO2 emission of the microgrid operation was above 20% for reference system.

Subjective experiments were carried out in a climate chamber using Japanese subjects, in order toevaluate human comfort at very low humidity. Two levels of absolute humidity were set. Three airtemperature conditions for each absolute humidity level were examined. People were exposed in achamber for 90 minutes with sedentary activity.Subjective break up time got significantly shorter at extremely low absolute humidity.

A subjective experiment was conducted using 15 college-aged subjects of both genders in order toevaluate their physiological and psychological reactions, performance and fatigue under the differentcombinations of indoor humidity, local air velocity and illuminance.The five-hour exposure periods were divided into three sections of 1.5 hours by 10-minute breaks.During each section, subjects performed 3 times of 20-minute task.

Particulate matter is a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets. It is a diversepollutant class whose excessive presence in indoor air contributes to an array of adverse health andmaterial-damage effects. The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing healthproblems.

There are a lot of aspects for evaluation of odor. Not only the hedonics aspects but also thepleasantness aspects are very important for the building design. Authors have investigated the sensoryevaluation of odor from building materials and turned our attentions to the psychological process ofodor evaluation. In this paper, odors emitted from four building materials that is wood, wood flooring,Tatami (Japanese traditional rush mat) and concrete were adopted and the sensory evaluation tests byhuman subjects were conducted.

The methodology to describe the individual difference in temperature regulation of human body intransient state is proposed in this paper. In order to clarify the individual difference experimentally, thechange in skin and core temperatures was measured for four subjects exposed to a thermal transientcondition including stepwise air temperature change of coming and going to lower and highertemperature condition from thermally neutral condition. The differences in core temperature andregulatory responses were found to be significant.

Outbreaks of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) first gained attention in the 1970s in the USA, with thedevelopment of more energy-efficient buildings that depend on mechanical ventilation systems tocirculate fresh air, as well as to control air temperature and sometimes humidity.SBS at office building and so on is not such a severe problem, but, a similar syndrome has beenrecently reported with increasing frequency in airtight new houses in Japan, that is, Sick HouseSyndrome (SHS). We have conducted the survey concerning SHS in Fukushima city, northeast area ofJapan since 2003.

To promote the effort for energy conservation, it is also important to estimate the indoor environmentalquality (IEQ) from the aspect of office workers productivity. In this paper, a field survey in a call-centerwas explained with the main result relating the indoor air temperature and the performance of thecommunicators. Then, an example of economical effect of changing the preset temperature of theair-conditioning system in summer was estimated based on the findings from the field survey.

The double-glazed external wall (double-skin) system is an effective passive technique that candecrease solar heat gain into the building. Detailed information concerning the thermal characteristicsof the double skin is necessary to accomplish a good design for thermal comfort and energy-saving.In this paper, the 3-dimensional thermal characteristics of the double skin that had the openingspartially installed and was partially shaded by the adjacent building were investigated by a fieldmeasurement.

We developed an air cleaner (AC) for chemical sensitivity (CS) patients. The AC have a high efficiencyair filter and a special activated carbon filter to remove airborne particles and gaseous contaminants.Using the AC, we conducted a monitoring experiment to investigate improvement of indoor air quality(IAQ) in the actual residences of CS patients. In the experiment, IAQ in the residences of nine CSpatients was measured before and after AC operation.