Energy-efficient building design often makes use of night-time ventilation or thermal slab activation. The quality of the design tools used depends on the quality of the empirical valuesused within them such as heat transfer coefficients. Thus, an experimental facility for investigationof room ventilation and indoor heattransfer has been built at Biberach University ofApplied Sciences in Germany. lnitial tests havebeen conducted investigating natural convectionheat transfer with an electrical heating elementon the floor.

The holistic aim of this study is to make clearthe possibility of passive cooling systems usingnatural cool sources produced by cyclic weatherchanges. Here in this study, we focused on apossible use of rainwater for cooling. First, weset up two rooms in an experimental apartmentbuilding: one has radiative cooling panels andexternal shading; and the other internal shadingalone. The panel surface temperature of theradiative cooling was controlled atapproximately 24 C and the water to besupplied in the panel was produced by a heatpump system.

The effect of downdraft spoilers is questioned.CFD results are presented for a large atriumequipped with downdraft spoilers ("obstacles")to counteract downdraft from glazed faqades.Simulations are in addition presented for oneandtwo-story test rooms, where aspects of theefficiency of downdraft spoilers are investigated.Among conclusions are that the spatial thermalbalance of rooms, e.g. stratification or otherbuoyancy driven flows, are essential to thedowndraft, more so, than downdraft spoilers.

This field work was conducted in Wuhan in2007 summer to investigate local residents'thermal adaptation. A total of 367 residentsanswered questionnaires and 69 familiesprovided 348 data sets including residents'demographics information, thermal sensation,corresponding indoor and outdoor climaticcondition, housing characteristic and residents'adaptive behavior. The investigation has shownthat local residents can tolerant more rigorousthermal environments comparing with theranges defined by ASHRAE.

The paper presents the results of mold growthrislzs in a corner wall near an entrance door inan apartment house. The corner wall isrecognized as a trouble spot for condensationand mold risk in apartment buildings. Thisstudy analyses mold rislzs based on a mixedsimulation approach. This approach requires areliable aggregation method to arrive atquantified mold growth risk and extension ofstandard simulation capacity to account for additional mechanisms of the moldphenomenon.

BEU accounting and assessment is a fundamental task for development of energy efficiency in buildings. The traditional methodology is based on caloric value of energy carriers, which is only relates to energy quantity. To address a comprehensive assessment, an exergy assessment methodology is put forward in this paper. Furthermore, in existing China's statistical yearbook, there is no specific item for building energy use. This paper processes analysis for statistical yearbook and acquires relevant rough data of building energy use.

Recently post-occupancy evaluation is oftenused to know the actual performance of socalledenergy saving building components andto compare with simulated performance. Inreality, the occupants choice how to achievecomfortable conditions, e.g. by switching on anair-conditioning unit or opening a window,influences significantly on the exergy balance ofthe building systems.

In this work the problem of the estimation of achange in the dynamics and time-varyingthermal parameters for a wall from experimentaldata is solved in several ways. The problem isfirstly solved by the application of a classicalsteady-state method. This method gives goodresults with time series long enough, but showsno predictive power. Secondly, linear timeinvariant(LTI) dynamic statistical models intransfer function form are applied. Theyestimate the thermal parameters and also offerpredictive power. Finally, linear and timevarying(LTV) continuous time stochasticmodelling is applied.

A push-pull fume cupboard is a device to capture chemical vapors in a laboratory or a factory. It utilizes a push flow from the bottom of the sash and a pull flow behind the doorsill to form an air curtain and capturepollutants inside the cupboard. The effects ofarms and walk-by on the capture flow in thepush-pull fume cupboard are not clear. Hence,this study is aimed on evaluation of theinfluences of arms and walk-by on the fumecupboard using a numerical model for turbulentflow. In terms of predicted results, thepush-pull fume cupboard is not affected byarms.

A numerical model of an underfloor air distribution system was created to aid future research on the system's environmental performance. A validated numerical model can serve to minimize the need for costly experimental setups. This paper presents theresults of an experimental and numerical study 1. INTRODUCTIONof the air temperature distribution of anunderfloor air distribution system.