Airbase publication

Humidity-based DCV systems have been widely used in France for 35 years and are considered as a reference system, including for low-energy residential buildings. The on-going Performance 2 project delivers the new results of a thirteen-year monitoring in twenty-two social housing apartments. The involved consortium is composed of Cerema, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc and two industrials partners: Aereco and Anjos. 

Many countries have mandated the use of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery to limit heat loss in residential buildings. Nearly all these devices use temperature sensors to modulate bypass dampers and adjust heat recovery. These controls track a reference temperature for the supply or return air while maintaining exhaust temperatures above freezing. As a result, nearly all air-handling units (AHUs) come equipped with temperature sensors before and after the heat exchanger for both airflows.

Assessment methods to assess smart ventilation, in most countries focus only on comfort as criteria for the indoor air quality (IAQ), (Guyot et al., 2019). This is an issue as in doing so, pollutants that are known to cause harm to the human health are not taken into consideration while the exposure to VOCs will be elevated if the smart ventilation system lowers the ventilation flowrates to save energy (De Jonge and Laverge, 2021).

IEA-EBC Annex 86 “Energy Efficient IAQ Management in residential buildings” aims to propose an integrated rating method for the performance assessment and optimization of energy efficient strategies of managing the indoor air quality (IAQ) in new and existing residential buildings. Our goal is to work in an international collaboration so that the different approaches to design and operation of ventilation in different countries are accounted for.

In order to get to scale and rapidly decarbonize the energy use of homes, we need information on the performance and costs of potential home upgrade measures. The costs for different performance levels are vital for energy savings and decarbonization program planning and to focus R&D activities on measures that could achieve significant cost reductions. This study obtained data from over 1,700 projects that aimed to achieve advanced levels of energy use and related carbon emissions reductions.

The use of natural ventilation components as an enhancement for the ventilation systems has become more desirable in the building sector. The natural ventilation systems play a crucial role in reducing the carbon footprint from space heating and cooling through applications of low carbon technology and heat recovery unit. Low carbon technologies such as windcatchers and turbine ventilators are commonly used in commercial, educational, and industrial buildings for providing thermal comfort within a building and minimising carbon emissions.

In recent years, there has been increasing number of cases using the double skin façade to satisfy both the indoor views and energy saving. In summer, the double skin façade has a heat shielding effect by exhausting solar heat through natural ventilation and in winter, in addition to the thermal insulation effect by the air layer, a heat collecting effect of solar heat can also be expected. On the other hand, the natural ventilation performance of the double skin façade in summer strongly depends on the outdoor conditions, making it difficult to achieve a stable heat shielding effect.

In a previous study, an optimal control method was proposed for typical office space in hot and humid regions where Thermally Activated Building Systems (TABS) are installed. This method was based on a combination of load prediction, model predictive control, sparse modeling. The cooling capacity and indoor thermal environment were evaluated using computational fluid dynamics analysis and coupled MATLAB/Simulink analysis.

Thermal environment affects occupants’ work performance and well-being. Office workers’ complaints regarding thermal environment are often related to either too warm room temperature or draught. Efficiency demands have increased the heat loads in offices, and increased cooling is needed to control the room air temperature. Draught problems occurs typically in these situations when the workstation is located in the downfall area of the inlet jet. 

Thermoelectric technology has developed as a substitute for existing refrigerants in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration(HVAC&R) system applications for building decarbonization. Hydraulic thermoelectric radiant cooling panel operated based on the Peltier effect is one of the best way to alternate conventional cooling panels using a chiller with refrigerators. However, there are limitations to apply to building energy simulation and performance evaluation because there are few guidelines and no standard model of a water-cooled thermoelectric radiant cooling panel.