In this past decade, glazed façades use in new buildings has soared. Some of these façades, called "double skin façades", are made of internal and external glazing. As indicated by its name, "double skin façades" are a special type of envelope which air s

Indoor humidity is an important parameter influencing the occupants’ perception of indoor air quality, and is also a cause of harmful processes that may occur on surfaces of materials, such as cracking of walls or microbiological growth. Building material

This paper presents the results of a Radiance-based intermodel comparison between the validatedDaysim daylight coefficient model and a new standard model for dynamic daylighting simulations (DDS).The new model offers independence from site location and orientation, estimation techniques andsimulation applications. The standard data can be used for dedicated daylighting analysis or for integratedbuilding energy/daylighting simulation. Results show that DDS outperforms Daysim, notably in caseswhere sensors are subjected to sudden changes in solar exposure, e.g.

This paper presents the application of multi-inputs single-output (MISO) models to estimate thethermophysicals parameters of a building. ARARMAX, Box-Jenkins and the general MISO models areused to identify the U value, the time constant and the equivalent solar surface of the building.Optimization-based prediction error method (PEM) algorithm is used to estimate model parameters.This approach has been tested to analyze a passive solar house in Tunis. The identified parameterswere compared to theoretical values; good results have been obtained for the tested building.

Active solar heating was a favorite topic after the first energy crisis. Usage for space heating, however,proved to be completely uneconomic. Domestic hot water systems, instead, retained attention. Theycan be used year-around and have a much larger share in the hot water energy bill than space heatingsystems have in the heating bill. Of course, in the past, energy use for domestic hot water wasonly a fraction of the energy needed for space heating.

This paper aims to report the solar and thermal data for various common and innovative materialsused in outdoor urban applications. The tested materials include various types of coatings, tiles andasphalt pavement. In the framework of this research, the spectral reflectance and the emissivity of thematerials were measured using a UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer fitted with an integrating sphere andan emissometer. The solar reflectance of the samples was calculated.

Nowadays energy performance is an increasing concern to sustainable urban planning because of itsimplications in energy consumption patterns. Interactions between urban form and urban microclimatehas been broadly studied from large scale such as the city as a whole through heat island studies.However urban planning needs to be addressed at local scale as well.The purpose of the work is to study experimentally thermal conditions on outdoor spaces within theurban fabric at neighbourhood scale in Santiago city, Chile.

In this paper the thermal behaviour of a direct ground cooling system located in Milano, Italy, isstudied by means of dynamic simulations performed in the TRNSYS environment. The simulationmodel consists of a reference building equipped with radiant panels connected to a vertical groundheat exchanger. Room thermostats and chilled surface condensation sensors provide system control.The ground heat exchanger size is adjusted in order to provide summer comfort conditions in thebuilding as well as sustainable operation over a long period.

The goal of this study, carried out on a wooden building, is to apply the methodology of identification inorder to obtain the physical parameters which characterize the thermal behaviour of the building. Theidentification of the system is the methodology of modeling the system starting from the experimentaldata.

Since most important design decisions are taken during the first design phase, an evaluation ofthe total environmental impact is necessary at that moment. A first step in that direction is takenby the Flemish government through the introduction of the Energy Performance Norm (EPN) fromJanuary 2006 on. The EPN evaluates the overall energy consumption of buildings during the usephase instead of looking at thermal insulation and compactness only.