Airbase publication

Indoor air pollution is a significant concern due to its adverse effects on human health and productivity. With people spending most of their time indoors, exposure to indoor air contaminants can lead to various health issues, including respiratory problems, cardiovascular diseases, and even an increased risk of lung cancer and premature mortality. Additionally, poor indoor air quality can result in short-term symptoms like headaches, eye and throat irritation, fatigue, and asthma, impacting workplace productivity and absenteeism.

International Energy Agency (IEA) Annex 78 was launched in 2018.

Due to global warming, severe problems of buildings overheating during summer in temperate and hot climates arise. Thus, there is an increasing use of air conditioning. However, alternative passive and soft cooling systems exist to address comfort and energy savings issues, such as natural ventilation or ceiling fans, that consume less energy. Although they are well-known today, their use remains under-enhanced.

Over time with thermal and energy regulations, buildings are increasingly insulated and airtight to control better the heat exchanges between the indoor and outdoor environments. The primary function of the mechanical ventilation system is to ensure healthy air by diluting odours and humidity with fresh air. However, in many situations, windows opening can be much more effective in terms of thermal comfort, air quality, or release heat loads due to a higher air change rate than the mechanical ventilation system itself.

Comfort modelling is a critical scientific barrier to reaching better thermal satisfaction in buildings. It allows designers to combine different cooling systems better to target comfortable low-energy buildings in hot and tropical climates. Increasing computer performance offers new perspectives to use more refined thermo-physiological models against traditional normative ones. Also, new types of coupled cooling alternatives arise and set a need for adequate comfort assessment models.

In this work, we propose a method to couple the behaviour models developed with Python in a previous paper with the dynamic thermal simulation software EnergyPlus, an advanced code used in research and design. The proposed coupling method is applied to the thermal model of an office building situated in the humid tropical climate of Reunion Island after calibrating and validating it with measured temperature and relative humidity data.

In the United States, the realm of building enclosure design and commissioning is separate and distinct from the realm of mechanical design and commissioning. This paper will illustrate how and why these disciplines have been historically separated and outline the consequences of this division and describe the opportunity that a closer relationship between the two represents in terms of costs and environmental impact.

The need for airtightness control is a reality given its impact on buildings’ energy use and IAQ. For the past few years, this fact has resulted in energy performance regulations being established in many countries in Europe and North America. However, compliance proof is not always required, and on-site testing is often avoided. In this sense, predictive models have become useful in the decision-making process and to estimate input values in energy performance simulation tools.

Airtightness is presented through various expression according to the standards and measurement methods of each country. To compare the airtightness of buildings of different sizes, ACH50 and air permeability are mainly used to express the airtightness.

Due to the minimal energy requirement, the Passivhaus standard has been widely recognised and adopted to deliver low carbon buildings. To achieve this standard, the thermal and physical properties of the building envelope have to meet a stringent criteria. It has set out the highest requirement for the building airtightness, which requires the envelope to achieve an air change rate less than 0.6 h-1 when the building is subject to a pressure difference of 50 Pa. Building an envelope with such a high level of airtightness can be extremely challenging.