In the first phase of the current project, the ventilation rates of occupied houses in the northern region of Japan were investigated from 2001 to 2005. It was revealed that, despite installing mechanical ventilation system, low ventilation rate was found in many houses. The causes were believed attributing to lack of cleaning of grills, filters and insect protection meshes. The second phase of the project was to investigate the causes and resolve the problems. This project was started in 2005 and 12 houses installed with mechanical ventilation system were investigated.

Air leakages can cause a significant energy penalty, inability of the heating system, and failure of the ventilation system – especially in passive houses. However, they can be avoided if given serious consideration in the design phase. The use of adequat

This study aims at investigating the actual conditions of indoor environment in schools in order toobtain fundamental information for proper ventilation design of buildings. Indoor environment of twonew elementary schools in Tohoku district of Japan was investigated for a week in the winter 2005.Temperature and humidity, concentrations of Carbon Dioxide (CO2), ventilation airflow rates,concentrations of chemical substances, and the opening condition of the windows and doors weremeasured in the three classrooms of each school.

The purpose of this study is to determine how levels of ventilation rates and indoor air quality vary in elementary schools in southern Japan. This study is based on field monitoring carried out as intermittent monitoring from summer to winter. The concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and the air exchange rates were measured in four classrooms in Kagoshima City. The measurements also included carbon dioxide (CO2) in a selected classroom with occupancy of the pupils.

In this article the concept of a new energy-efficient office building and results of a 3-year monitoringare described. The monitoring was performed within the German funding programme ENOB.In this building most of the offices are naturally ventilated and passively cooled. Another focus of theenergy concept is on regenerative heating.Monitoring results show that the integrated planning enabled a very low consumption of energy forheating, ventilation, cooling and lighting.

The objective of this paper is to present long time monitoring and post occupancy evaluation of theMoravian Metropolitan Library with the ventilated solar faade used for space heating and with mixing chamber for cooling with the forced ventilation. In consequences of new requirements from the EU Energy Performance of Building Directives 2002/91/EC and changing Czech building regulations is necessary support collective research effort on quality assurance and standardization on solar components and installations in buildings.

This work lies within the concept of positive energy buildings. The aim is to develop an activemanagement of local free energy (solar, air and earth) inside the envelops by convection heat transfer and by the use of phase change materials (PCMs) in order to store or release heat when needed. A 1D RC network simulation tool has been developed for different standard fronts including a solar air collector and a double skin faade (south frontage), leading to the thermal simulation of a room with different configurations, with or without PCMs integration and for ventilated envelops.

In cold and moderate climates, improvements in building shell insulation and air-tightness imply a shiftin heating loads from transmission and infiltration towards ventilation. Heat recovery from the ventilation airflow plays an increasingly important role in minimising energy needs. Such heat recovery systems rely on the input of electric power (to drive fans, heat pumps, etc.) in order to recover thermal energy. Since electricity input is relatively small compared to the amounts of thermal energy recovered, such systems are efficient from an energy viewpoint.

Although the concept of ventilation has been around for several thousand years, the application of ventilation to overcome low productivity in warm to hot climates has been neglected over the last few decades. Since the advent of relatively cheap air conditioning owners have been seduced into installing air conditioning in the belief that the supposed increase in productivity will offset the high capital installation cost as well as the operation and maintenance expense. Local limited research has indicated that this is not the case. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests the opposite.

Sustainable architecture design for tropical climates requires the use of natural ventilation besideseveral strategies, as appropriated materials, site location, faade orientation, solar shading, etc. Theindoor thermal comfort and thermal performance of the building depends on the bioclimatic zonewhere is located. The new Brazilian Norm ABNT NBR 15220-3 has established bioclimatic zones and guidelines for low-income houses. Due to the lack or scarcity of meteorology wind data, certainregions as Amazon and Northeast coast were inserted in a same zone.