The research was intended to discover which species of mould occurred, whether there were different species on the same spot or whether one species was dominant, whether the species were different from one dwelling to another or whether the same species occurred in all the houses, and whether there were differences according to the furnishing materials used or the presence of fat, for example on kitchen walls.
This overview explains why indoor air quality (lAQ) has recently attracted so much attention what are the major sources of indoor air pollution, and what are the health effects of concern. It discusses differences among occupational, outdoor, and indoor air pollution problems including some of the different measurement needs. It also covers the total exposure concept, and discusses the California IAQ Program. Emerging trends in indoor air quality measurement techniques are presented in the final part of the paper.
A simple model is developed for the estimation of annual rates in single-family houses using indicators for both house tightness (air changes at 50 Pa) and site climate (the leakage-infiltration ratio). This technique is best suited to low-accuracy, large data set problems where detailed data are not available. The method is similar to the method attributed to Kronvall and Persily (ie, the K-P method), but is derived from a physical model, the LBL infiltration model.
The average UK household spends about +500 per year on heating, lighting and power for domestic appliances but there is a huge variation between individual household expenditures. Field trials, in which the energy use in occupied dwellings is measured, show that the physical characteristics of the dwelling and the lifestyles of the occupants are about equally important in determining energy consumption. It is clear, therefore, that realistic estimates of domestic energy consumption can only be made if both these factors are considered together.
Three thermal analysis methods with different degrees of empiricism are quantitatively investigated regarding the ease of use, efficiency, accuracy and redundancy of generated information. From this investigation it is concluded that, for design purposes, a sensitive interplay between experiment and theory can often lead to an optimum method.
This paper extends an earlier investigation of scale effects on buoyancy driven recirculating flows in stairwells of the kind adopted in domestic accommodation. Further consideration is given to the role of Reynolds number, which proves to have unexpected features, possibly because stairwell flows fall into the range of incipient instability. A technique is developed to introduce explicitly the fraction defining the way in which the energy loss from the system is divided between the regions above and below the stairway.
The article in last month's issue of "Energy Management" gave a brief overview of the Energy Efficiency Office's programme of demonstrations in the housing sector, as managed by BRE the Building Research Establishment. In the case of new housing, these are showing the benefits of integrating packages of energy efficiency measures into the designs of range of dwelling types.
It was generally recognised that because of occupants' behaviour, natural ventilation rates were usually much lower than the accepted criteria for calculation. A great deal of anecdotal data existed which showed that frequency of opening windows bore a direct relation to external temperature and that the greater the volume the less the frequency of opening. The recent BRE survey also shows that very low ventilation rates, below 4 cubic metres/ person/hr have been found to be acceptable.
The report gives the first results of the measurement campaign of 1986-1987. The 'Lindeman' housing estate was built by the coal mine of Zolder for its miners shortly after the 2nd World War (1947-1948). The estate consists of about 230 dwellings and accommodates 272 households. The majority of the population consists of immigrants, especially Turks and Italians, people who are used to another, hotter climate than the wet cold temperature climate in Belgium. The rented houses were refitted in 1981.
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