Airbase publication

Recent studies examined a liquid desiccant indirect and direct evaporative cooling assisted 100% outdoor air system (LD-IDECOAS) as an energy conserving alternative to conventional air conditioning systems. An IDECOAS was introduced as an environmental-friendly air conditioning system that uses latent heat of water evaporation to cool the process air. Recently, studies suggested the integration of a liquid desiccant(LD) system with an IDECOAS to overcome a cooling reduction in evaporative cooling performance in a hot and humid climate.

One of the problems presented by energy recovery ventilators (ERV) is the condensation/frosting problem that occurs during winter time. In order to prevent this problem, preheating outdoor air is the most common method used nowadays. The aim of this research is to evaluate preheat coil capacities according to different indoor/outdoor inlet air conditions (temperatures and humidities) and sensible/latent effectiveness of ERV (εS, εL).

Natural ventilation (NV) is an efficient way of cooling buildings, and its energy saving potentials however depend on many parameters including local hourly weather and climate conditions, types of ventilations, indoor cooling loads (or heat gains), operating schedules, window types, and opening-wall ratios etc. Determination of the NV flow rate is thus challenging, although there are many empirical equations for different NV strategies, e.g. single-sided and cross-ventilation, considering different driving forces, e.g. wind, buoyancy and a mix of both.

Existing protocols for the inspection of mechanical residential systems poorly address both the assessment of uncertainties and recommendations or specifications for measurement methods and devices to be used to guarantee low measurement uncertainties. This paper gives the major elements of a new protocol developed within the Promevent project to overcome this problem. We have analyzed results from 180 airflow measurements performed in laboratory conditions in accordance with this protocol.

This paper presents a ventilated solar collector with energy storage of fins containing Phase Change Material (PCM) in the air cavity and investigates its thermal performance. The idea is to use PCM in combination with ventilation as a thermal controller of indoor environment and to consequently decrease the building energy consumption both in summer and winter time. The main parts of the solar collector are plate fins with small thickness containing PCM fitted into the ventilation cavity, which is a good way to compensate the low thermal conductivity of PCM.

This paper proposes a methodology to assess fan energy use savings when improving ductwork airtightness. This methodology is based on new standard FprEN 16798-5-1:2016. Unlike the classical "cube law", it considers pressure drops at air terminal devices separately from the pressure drops in the rest of the system.

It has already been proved that air leakage causes a great impact in the energy performance of buildings in cold climates. In recent years, many studies have been carried out in northern Europe, US and Canada. Regulations in these countries establish maximum air leakage rates for the construction of new dwellings and the refurbishment of the existing ones. However, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the housing stock in Spain.

A literature review has revealed that there is a very limited number of numerical or experimental studies of the air flow for mechanically ventilated large occupied rooms. Existing literature suggests that a room with more than 5 meters floor-to-ceiling height can be considered as a large space. The aim of this paper is to present a set of detailed air temperature and velocity measurements in a large open plan office located in south England.

An airtight building envelope ensures not only the energy-efficiency of a building, but also a damage free construction. Important to achieve optimal airtightness are the planning, implementation and materials. Long-term airtightness requires efforts in all three aspects. Airtightness products are being tested under lab conditions but these results cannot be transferred one-on-one onto buildings.

Heatwaves are often responsible for many deaths due to high temperature indoors. Energy savings is a key element in building design and refurbishment works to reduce the impact of climate change. Natural ventilation is often promoted as an indoor space cooling solution thanks to its energy saving potential.
The paper deals with prediction of heat-related health risks situations in naturally ventilated dwellings.