The effect on Indoor Air Quality of painting at home while resident stays at home has been discussed. This paper presents a case study of the effects. A normal Scandinavian apartement has been refurnished with new paint on the walls and ceilings and the VOC emissions have been followed during eight weeks. Two types of low-emitting paint was selected for the study. A paint shop rolled two layers of new paint on the walls and ceiling in two rooms in the flat.

Very important issue for all activities for better IAQ in Finland has been the introduction of the classification guidelines for indoor air quality and climate. These guidelines, published by FISIAQ, including measurable target values, cleanliness requirements and emission criteria's for building materials, has been in use in Finland since 1995 and revised year 2001. An essential part of the successful IAQ classification has been the emission classification of construction materials.

Building products, furniture and other products used indoor influence the indoor air quality. This implies that ventilation is not the only method to ensure good IAQ. Pollutant load reduction by using low-emitting materials is a far more effective way to improve the air quality inside a building. Measurement of chemical emissions is not enough to characterise the impact building materials have on indoor air quality.

The variety of quality labels and classifications dealing with emission into indoor air require many similar tests to be done if a company wants to apply for more than one these. If we want to reduce the necessary number of tests and thus the costs then it is essential that these voluntary labels consider to adapt the international standards and try to harmonise. There are many different approaches in the respective testing protocols but also some common tracks. At the present stage it is already possible to combine testing requirements of some labels to a certain degree.

Thermal desorption (TD) is a readily automated gas extraction technology based on standard gas chromatography parameters and providing an efficient, high-sensitivity alternative to convential solvent extraction. It is applied in single stage form to whole-air samples (canisters, bags, air streams) or in two stage form to organic analytes collected on sorbent tubes. TD involves the extraction of volatile or semi-volatile organic compounds from a sorbent by heating the sample, rapidly, in a flow of inert gas.

This field study was organized to determine the ventilation required to maintain acceptable air quality in a retail store using the ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 performance-based procedure. Pollutant concentrations and ventilation rates were measured in a large retail store during four one-week intervals. The measurement intervals were each separated by three months to allow different weather conditions and mixes of retail stock to be present over the one-year field study in a cold continental climate.

DayMedia and MulCom are multimedia teaching packages targeted at architects and building engineers, as well as students. While DayMedia is concerned with daylighting in architecture, MulCom covers human comfort and the energy performance of buildings. Most of the content is related to thermal comfort, although acoustics and visual comfort are covered as well. The development of the packages has part-funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the Low Energy Architecture Research Unit (LEARN) of the University of North London.

This paper discusses the status of standards and regulations concerning performance calculationmethods for renewable energies systems in the built environment. The outcome of a European wideinquiry on this topic, carried out in the frame of the European project on Energy Performance Regulations (EnPeR) will be presented. In addition an overview is given of the renewable energiessystems that are considered under these regulations and the consequences of the new EnergyPerformance Directive.

In the framework of harmonisation of the Slovene legislation with the European, in 1995 the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of the Republic of Slovenia began with the preparation of new Slovene standards and regulations. In the first phase adopting of a whole range of standards was planned. In the second phase, which is presently running, the preparation and adopting of regulations has to be completed.

The European Commission has expressed the wish to harmonize energy regulations in the building sector and at the same time has formulated goals for promoting the use of renewable energy sources. This paper studied the possible synergy of these two targets. To make a first step in this research topic renewable energy techniques are considered as environmental innovations for which incentives, being a public good, is dependent on governmental intervention, like energy policy instruments.