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Lhasa, at high altitudes, in the west of China, is in a cold region, but with an annual total solar radiation as much as 7.2GJ/m 2 . Conventional water solar collectors and water pipes have the risk of burst in the severe cold. In this paper, a building heating system combining solar air collector with thermally activated building system (TABS) is proposed in Lhasa, China. To analyze the performance of the solar heating system in intermittent operation, a numerical model was built using the finite difference method for TABS and the state-space method for the reference building in Lhasa. The systematic simulations show that the indoor air temperature could be maintained at 17-24 °C for 24 hours with the TABS in intermittent operation at an average outdoor air temperature of -3 °C. The air solar collector of an area of 1m 2 could undertake the heat load of a building area of 3-4 m 2 in Lhasa without any other heat source.

A novel dynamic simulation model, called DETECt 2.3.1, purposely developed for thermo-hygrometric energy performance analyses of multi-zone buildings, is presented. Relevant novelties vs. previous implemented code releases are discussed. They regard: i) the simulation model for building spaces with multi-enclosed thermal zones; ii) a novel temperature-humidity control algorithm based on a reference adaptive control scheme. Such algorithm enables the online adaptation of the control gains, in order to overcome the well-known problems of classical fixed gain control algorithms. With the aim to show the features and the potentialities of the simulation code coupled with this new control scheme, a suitable case study related to special indoor hospitals spaces including multiple infant-incubators is developed. The robustness of the designed control approach is confirmed through the good regulation performance obtained for both the indoor air temperature and humidity, simultaneously.

This article describes the influence of the thermal storage mass of a passive house upon its summer thermal stability during the course of a single day. Summer thermal stability is studied for different construction variants used in passive buildings, both the wooden houses and the brick-built ones. The article deals with sensible heat stored in building materials only. The simulation results for the summer overheating of a passive detached house in Dubňany—Czech Republic are presented. The simulation was performed using the numerical method in BSim software. Based on the relationship between the sensible heat storage of thermal mass in a building and the maximum indoor air temperature, a curve describing the effectiveness of thermal mass in preventing overheating was drawn. The main body of the article analyses with more detail the required quantity of storage mass to be used particularly in wooden houses. The article is concluded by a section focusing on the evaluation of thermal storage in the structural mass of wooden houses.

A new energy-efficient and comfortable heating system, low-temperature floor radiant heating system of floor radiation is increasingly applied to a wide range of housing construction. In the paper, establishing the model of radiant floor heating systems, the effect of outdoor temperature, enclosure structures and heating storage characteristics that influence the indoor air temperature and the enclosure temperature, have been analyzed. The fuzzy-PID controller is chosen as the control radiant floor heating system. Several control strategies such as air-based control, slab-based control, and twoparameter control have been compared. Two-parameter control based on the floor surface temperature and the indoor air temperature is very stable, with high initial investment.

To investigate the indoor temperature variations of buildings constructed with different masonry materials, the small scale modelling technique was used. Two small scale models were designed and built as per the standards (SP: 41), one with sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA) bricks and another with commercially available fly ash bricks. In order to assess the indoor temperature of the built model houses, the room temperature recordings were monitored for the period of a year over the study area (Nagpur, Maharashtra, India), which has a composite type of climatic condition. The thermal conduction of the exposed wall assembly was estimated by the surface temperature readings of the built houses. The techno-economic viability for the developed model houses was also carried out. The detailed analysis revealed that the developed SBA brick model house (M-1) was thermally more resistant and economic than the fly ash brick model house (M-2). The study revealed that the SBA bricks are novel, and were found to be a better thermally insulated masonry construction material than the commercially available fly ash bricks.

This study performed a comparative analysis of the air distribution in a multi-occupant room with mixing or displacement ventilation and the effect of adding floor or ceiling heating to each of them. The vertical distribution of indoor air temperature and velocity in the occupied zone and the horizontal distribution of indoor containment concentration in the breathing zone were measured for all six systems with a supply air temperature of 19.0°C and an air change rate of 4.2 h−1. The results showed that the mean vertical air temperature difference in the occupied zone varied from 0.1°C to 0.6°C; the mean local turbulence intensity varied from 12.0% to 14.1% with mixing ventilation with or without floor or ceiling heating, and the corresponding values were 1.5°C to 2.5°C and 7.3% to 9.8% with displacement ventilation with or without floor or ceiling heating. Mean air distribution effectiveness varied from 0.93 to 1.0 for mixing ventilation and from 1.06 to 1.14 for displacement ventilation with or without ...

This work quantifies the effect of the tree shading and the effect of neighboring buildings shading on the thermal performance of a non-air-conditioned house in a warm sub-humid climate. Experimental measurements and simulations using EnergyPlus of the unoccupied house were conducted from April to December 2011 with tree shading and from January to April 2012 without tree shading. The simulations, that also considered the neighboring shading, were validated with the experimental results. To assess the effect of the tree shading, specific simulations were carried out with and without the tree for the weather conditions of December 2011 and April 2012. In addition, to assess the effect of neighboring building shading, simulations with and without neighboring buildings were conducted in April 2012, both without the tree. The main effects of the tree shading and of the neighboring buildings shading are the reduction of indoor air and envelope surface temperatures. It was shown that not taking into account the neighboring buildings shading gives a difference in average indoor air temperature up to 2.3 °C. The effect of the tree shading is greater in April (the warmest month) than in December (the coldest month). As indoor air temperatures in the coldest month are in the comfort range for the tree shading case, it is concluded that evergreen trees are adequate for this climate.

Data collected in an Italian ancient theatre were elaborated in order to compare subjective sensations evaluated by means of questionnaires to data measured in field. A simplified model, developed in a previous paper, was validated by using measured data and by comparing the results to data from questionnaires (PMV Q ). Questionnaire data vary in a wider range of values than measured ones, confirming a higher variability in the personal sensation due to the possibility of giving only whole numbers. Therefore the questionnaire PMV scale needs to be refined to a 0.5 increment (resulting in 13 values). When comparing data calculated with the simplified model developed by the Authors in a previous work to data from questionnaires, more reliable results in the prediction of PMV were found with respect to measured data. Finally, people who voted 0 were about 54%, while about 88% are in the −1 to +1 range, showing a good behaviour of the theatre, nevertheless a wide range of variability for data from questionnaires corresponds to the same value of indoor air temperature. For this reason the PMV questionnaire scale needs to be refined to a 0.5 increment (resulting in 13 values).

Space heating cost allocation according to actual consumption can be one possible solution for saving energy as residents are more motivated to regulate indoor air temperature. Introduction of heat cost allocators is a technique which can be used to ensure that the consumer pays only for the heat supplied to him. Installation of allocators increases the motivation of inhabitants to regulate indoor temperatures and thereby reduce heat consumption. Nevertheless, different criterions need to be taken into account in order to fairly allocate the heat costs in each apartment.

Driven by guiding passive architectural design and HVAC system design, the present study is aimed to propose design criteria of built thermal environment for Hot Summer & Warm Winter zone of China. During the four years from 2008 to 2012, thermal comfort field studies were conducted on 32 urban buildings and 270 rural buildings, more than 500 persons were involved and 3894 sets of raw data that contain thermal acceptability, thermal behaviors and physical parameters were collected. Data of using split air-conditioners was also collected in living rooms, bedrooms and dorms. Based on the data, the acceptable range was determined for environments of naturally ventilation, using fans and using air-conditioners respectively, and accordingly the design criteria of built thermal environment were proposed. The 80% acceptable range of indoor air temperature for naturally ventilated spaces was specified as 18.0–29.5 °C for urban buildings and ≤29.5 °C for rural buildings under the air speed conditions provided by opening windows and using fans. The upper limit of the range can be raised by 1–2 °C by effectively improving indoor humidity and radiation conditions through architectural design. The setting conditions for air-conditioned spaces were obtained as indoor air temperature of 24–28 °C and relatively humidity of 50–70%. The proposed criteria provide solid and essential bases for passive and active designs of built thermal environment in Hot Summer and Warm Winter zone of China.

In the last years in European countries, important measures were taken in order to reduce the energy need of buildings. Nevertheless, the energy need for cooling of buildings is rising. In most cases, to assure the required operative temperature, air conditioning systems are installed. Consequently, in summer period, the power networks of different European countries are overloaded. In order to determine the effects of glazed area orientation, air change rate, and thermal mass on the indoor air temperature, at the University of Debrecen, the Passol Laboratory was built. Measurements were performed from 2009 to 2013. Using the methodology given by EN ISO 13790:2008, the variation of indoor temperature was calculated and the theoretical values were compared with values obtained from measurements. The indoor temperature variation and the energy need for cooling were analyzed for different building structures, different orientations of the glazed area, and air change rates. The calculations have proven that the energy need for cooling can be reduced even to 25% of the thermal mass and the air change rate is chosen properly.

External shading devices have been utilized very extensively in office buildings in the tropics to reduce the amount of solar radiation entering into the buildings. In addition, the shading systems significantly improved the performance of day lighting by controlling the amount of lights levels of illumination entering into buildings. During hottest days, the impact was higher; however, the shading layers could still increase the amount of temperature gains through the glazing. Several methods can be employed to improve indoor thermal environment including using light colors for external surfaces, using a reflective glazing system, and using the appropriate thermal properties of external structure and roof. Therefore, this paper discusses the indoor temperature and relative humidity by using indoor temperature and relative humidity equipment (HOBO Data Logger) for office room with three different types of shading devices in Malaysia, which are focusing on the vertical shading, horizontal shading and egg-crate shading. The objectives of this research are; to measure the indoor air temperature and relative humidity in the office building, to identify the highest, lowest and average indoor temperature and relative humidity in the office building, to compare with standard guideline of air temperature and relative humidity and to find out which shading is suitable to be applied in achieving thermal comfort in an office The method use in this research is field measurement. The results indicate that egg crate shading has asignificant impact on decreasing indoor temperature as well as discomfort hours compared with other shading types.

Indoor air temperature monitoring is a basic activity giving useful information in many fields such as human thermal comfort, food preservation conditions and energy simulations. The collected data can help the room management and, their elaborations, can improve energy-efficient building design. The survey equipment installation in an indoor space – sensor number and positions, record frequency – is a delicate procedure depending on several conditions related to the specific room. Nevertheless specific installation procedures are nor defined or codified in the scientific literature. This study aims at the definition of a temperature survey method, both accurate and cost-effective, able to quantify and maximize precision and accuracy of the temperature monitoring in indoor spaces, through an experimental temperature test carried out on a wine-aging room of an Italian wine farm. The method allows to identify homogeneous temperature zones, the number of sensors to be installed and the proper data recording frequency, based on the specific needs of the process under study. This method is experimentally validated by means of a test carried out on a wine-aging room.

Sustainable core daylighting is expected to provide comfortable and healthy daylight in dense urban areas. One system, an anidolic daylighting system is a promising solution, however, it is still not widespread because of several complications. This paper presents an application of an affordable anidolic daylighting system on a tropical urban house designed with a simple edge-ray approach. This approach has created a parabolic collector for east-facing (azimuth 85°) anidolic daylighting system to improve the daylighting level of a room with high external obstruction. Simulation results and short-term monitoring before and after the construction have indicated successful application of an anidolic daylighting system for improving daylighting performance, especially before 13:00, without increasing indoor air temperature. The results have shown a strong hourly illuminance profile. To improve the indoor illuminance after 13:00 and the hourly illuminance profile, an east-facing anidolic daylighting system collector can be combined with a west-facing collector.

In order to study the human thermal adaptation in Tibetan dwellings of Kangding Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, selected 4 dwellings in Tagong and Zhonggu village as the research objects and used the method of objective thermal environment parameters test combined with the subjective questionnaire, and got a total of 119 valid samples, the data analysis results show that indoor air temperature in this area was low, average clothing insulation was 0.75clo and it correlated with outdoor temperature was stronger than that with indoor temperature. The change rate of human thermal sensation changing along with outdoor temperature was 0.113 per temperature and it was 0.147 per temperature changing along with indoor temperature. Thermal neutral temperature was 18.5°C and preferred temperature was 20.65°C, neutral temperature was lower than preferred temperature but closer to average indoor temperature (17.36°C).

Double-skin roof is a popular passive cooling solution to curb heat gain into buildings and cool roof is another emerging solution. This study proposed a novel CRHT (cool roof heat transfer) model for double-skin roof which is able to model the heat transfers for a double-skin roof combined with cool roof. The CRHT model was validated against experiments performed in two identically-configured, naturally ventilated apartments in Singapore. CRHT predictions match with experimental measurements with reasonable accuracy. White-color cool coating on a flat double-skin roof reduces the daily heat gain by 0.21 kWh/m 2 (or 51%), resulting peak indoor air temperature reduction by 2.4 °C on a sunny day. Furthermore, thermal performance of cool roof is compared with double-skin roof using the CRHT model. In the roof setup of the current study, double-skin roof is about 6% more effective than cool roof in reducing annual heat gain into the apartment during day time. However, the extra insulation of double-skin roof hinders the heat loss during night time, ensuing cool roof is almost equally effective in reducing net annual heat gain. The proposed CRHT model is generally applicable to any climate conditions as demonstrated by applying it for Mediterranean climate of Athens, Greece.

To evaluate the effect of phase change materials (PCMs) on the indoor thermal environment of greenhouses under different weather conditions and over a long time in the heating season, a study was carried out using both experimental method and numerical method. The study was conducted in a typical greenhouse located in Beijing, China, and important parameters have been monitored continuously for 61 days, including indoor air temperature, outdoor air temperature, solar radiation, surface temperature of greenhouse envelopes and soil temperature. Based on these parameters, a number of indicators, namely, operative temperature, daily effective accumulative temperature, irradiated surface temperature of the north wall, average temperature of PCMs, and daily heat storage and release, have been used to evaluate the performance of PCMs in greenhouses. All indicators have provided consistent results that confirm the positive effect of PCMs on improving the indoor thermal environment of greenhouses over a long time. Additionally, the paper has demonstrated that a sunny weather could help to promote the efficiency of PCMs, comparing to a cloudy weather.

Owing to the small thermal inertia of prefab houses, indoor thermal environment is poor and occupants are tormented especially under the high solar radiation. Retro-reflective materials can make it a reasonable choice to decrease radiation heat gain due to their high reflectivity for solar radiation. Comparative results show that the indoor air temperature of the prefab house by covering retro-reflectivity materials can reduce by more than 7 °C, while the reduced value is close to 10 °C for the peak radiant temperature and 7 °C for indoor average radiant temperature. It shows retro-reflective materials have a significant effect on thermal performance improvement of prefab houses. Through the comparative study of different walls, it is found that the top, south and east walls are the better choices and that the north wall is the worst one to cover retro-reflectivity materials.

The distribution of indoor air temperature in living environments can vary considerably as a result of temperature-induced differences in air density. During wintertime heating, warm air tends to concentrate toward the ceiling, leaving the lower portion near the floor (the primary area of occupant activity) relatively cold. There are ways to alleviate this situation, most notably forced convection by means of an air circulator. One problem with that approach, however, is that the temperature felt by the occupant is lower due to the chill caused by the air currents. In this research, ceramic insulating paint was applied to the interior walls of a test room (the paint contains many small ceramic particles and, through its insulative effects, is thought to increase energy efficiency). From this investigation, it was found that the ceramic insulating paint was effective in maintaining a high temperature near the floor during heating (and for an extended time after heating) without forced convection. The amenity of the test room was also evaluated.

A field study has been carried out for one district heating system in Beijing. According to the surveyed data, operation pattern of the district heating system has been discussed and quantitative relationship between supply water temperatures with outdoor temperatures has been developed. It indicates a fine linear correlation of daily temperature of supply water with weighted outdoor temperature within three days and an operation condition of “large flow rate and small temperature difference”. Additionally, the effects of the operation pattern on energy consumption and indoor air temperature have been presented. Results show that the heat supply of this heating system couldn’t meet the exact requirements for different rooms and at different time, and failed to build a stable indoor thermal environment in terms of space and time.

The dynamic thermal behaviour of opaque building components can be studied through the well-known dynamic thermal properties, i.e. thermal admittance, decrement factor and surface factor. These parameters, firstly introduced in the 70s, make it possible to quantify the response of the building fabric to sinusoidal temperature swings; their use has been recently recommended in some international Standards, such as the ISO 13786:2007. This paper shows that, based on the previously mentioned properties, it is possible to build up a general analytical model for the simulation of the dynamic response of a whole room. In comparison with other similar approaches available in the literature, the proposed model is more rigorous and comprehensive. Indeed, thanks to the use of the Fourier analysis, one can tackle any periodic driving force, and not only sinusoidal ones. Moreover, the model facilitates the identification of each single heat flux released by the opaque envelope as a response to each different forcing condition. The reliability of the model is checked against the procedure outlined in the Standard ISO 13792:2012. The results also clarify to which extent a higher order of harmonics may affect the shape of the indoor air temperature profile and the reliability of the model.

A passive cooling system combining the phase change materials (PCMs) and night ventilation is modelled with Energy Plus for residential buildings in Shanghai. By simulating the main parameters such as property of PCMs and ventilation rate that affect the system design, an initial scheme is given out and the feasibility is proved with a little sacrifice of the comfortable level of the indoor environment. The indoor air temperature is simulated to fluctuate below 28 °C for most of the days, which is the upper level for human body comfort.

For lots of areas in the world, the indoor thermal environment is terrible both in summer and in winter. The thermal environment needs to be improved for both the two seasons. A new type of phase change material (PCM) room is proposed in this paper. That is to lay two different kinds of PCM on room envelopes of different orientations. In this paper, the new PCM room and room without PCM are all built. Experiment is done for the two rooms under actual climate condition. Indoor air temperature, wall internal surface temperatures are measured. Results show that the new type of PCM room can improve indoor thermal environment in summer and winter.

Das Stallklima hat einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die Gesundheit der eingestallten Nutztiere. Neben der erforderlichen Stallluftung zur Gewahrleistung von genugend Frischluft ist speziell in den Aufzucht- oder Mastbeginnphasen eine ausreichend hohe Stalltemperatur erforderlich. Fur den wirtschaftlichen Betrieb von beheizten Nutztierstallen stellt sich deshalb, wie bei jeder Gebaudekonzeption, die Frage nach der optimalen Gestaltung und Abstimmung von Luftungssystem und Warmedammung der Gebaudehulle. Wahrend sich die Anwendung von Standardprogrammen zur dynamisch-thermischen Simulation von Wohn- und Verwaltungsbauten stetig durchsetzt, werden sie bei der Planung von Stallbauten bisher nur vereinzelt eingesetzt. In dem vorliegenden Artikel wird am Beispiel eines Mastgeflugelstalls der Einsatz von dynamisch-thermischen Simulationen dokumentiert. Dazu wird fur ein Stall-Modell der Betrieb uber ein Kalenderjahr simuliert und bewertet. Betrachtet werden drei Aspekte: (1) die Herausforderungen bei der Simulation von Stallen im Vergleich zur Simulation von Wohn- und Verwaltungsbauten; (2) die Qualitat der Simulationsresultate im Vergleich zu gemessenen Betriebswerten und (3) die Bewertung der Einflusse von Warmedurchgangskoeffizienten von Dach und Ausenwanden sowie der Ruckwarmezahl einer Warmeruckgewinnungsanlage in der Abluft in Bezug auf den Jahresheizenergiebedarf. Minimizing heat stress and energy demand for heating in mechanically ventilated poultry animal houses. The indoor environmental conditions in mechanically ventilated animal houses have a fundamental impact on health and well-being of the kept animals. Apart from the need to sufficiently ventilate the animal house it is important to maintain an indoor air temperature which corresponds to animal growth, particularly at the beginning of the fattening period. Thus, in order to provide an appropriate climate within the animal house building insulation, ventilation system and heating system operation need to be integrated and optimized. Whilst dynamic-thermal simulation programs are increasingly used for the design of residential and office buildings, they are rarely used for the design of animal houses. This article illustrates the benefit using the dynamic-thermal simulation on the example of a mechanically ventilated poultry house. Three aspects are being discussed: (1) the challenges in modelling poultry houses opposed to modelling residential and office buildings; (2) the quality of simulated performance data compared to measured data and (3) the impact of the heat recovery system COP as well as heat transfer coefficients of roof and walls on energy demand for heating and overheating risk. The results show the dominating impact of the ventilation system operation on energy demand for heating and the benefit of a high thermal storage capacity of the walls to eliminate life-threatening heat stress for the poultry.

In this study, real-time monitoring and control platform based on thermal comfort was developed to control space heating in living spaces. To calculate the thermal comfort level in a living space, environmental factors such as indoor air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity, and humidity are needed. In order to obtain the environmental factors, sensor nodes based on wireless sensor networks were developed. According to the data obtained from the sensor nodes, the thermal comfort index was calculated, and radiators used for space heating were controlled via monitoring and control software based on PC. Furthermore, several experiments were performed between living spaces where real-time monitoring and control platform was installed and living spaces heated with conventional methods. The measurements were carried out in four rooms at the Faculty of Technology of Suleyman Demirel University in Turkey during the winter season. The heat transferred from room radiators by creating proper conditions that can change the thermal comfort index was compared in the experiments. During experimental measurements, it was observed that the heat transferred to the environment through the room radiators reduced significantly, especially with closed doors and windows.

Over 70% of a pupil’s school life is spent inside a classroom, and indoor air quality has a significant impact on students’ attendance and learning potential. Therefore, the indoor air quality in primary school buildings is highly important. This empirical study investigates the indoor air quality in four naturally ventilated schools in China, with a focus on four parameters: PM2.5, PM10, CO2, and temperature. The correlations between the indoor air quality and the ambient air pollution, building defects, and occupants’ activities have been identified and discussed. The results indicate that building defects and occupants’ activities have a significant impact on indoor air quality. Buildings with better air tightness have a relatively smaller ratio of indoor particulate matter (PM) concentrations to outdoor PM concentrations when unoccupied. During occupied periods, the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratio could be larger than 1 due to internal students’ activities. The indoor air temperature in winter is mainly determined by occupants’ activities and the adiabatic ability of a building’s fabrics. CO2 can easily exceed 1000 ppm on average due to the closing of windows and doors to keep the inside air warmer in winter. It is concluded that improving air tightness might be a way of reducing outdoor air pollutants’ penetration in naturally ventilated school buildings. Mechanical ventilation with air purification could be also an option on severely polluted days.

As society has aged in Japan, residents of nursing homes are needing more advanced levels of care, which is increasing costs. Accordingly, strategies to prevent further deterioration of health are necessary. The effects of indoor air temperature on health aspects such as blood pressure and mortality have recently attracted attention. We measured indoor air temperature and assessed changes in the level of care needed among 1337 residents in 27 nursing homes during winter 2015. The nursing homes were classified into two groups (warm or cold) according to UK National Health Service guidelines regarding indoor air temperature. Cox regression analysis revealed that residents in warm nursing homes were less likely to deteriorate to a higher level of care (HR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.31 – 0.75). The result suggests that policies to regulate indoor temperature may be one ingredient to delay declines in health of nursing home residents and reduce care costs.

The issue of diminishing global energy resources has been of significant concern in recent years. One of the most energy hungry components is the Air-Conditioning and Mechanical Ventilation (ACMV) Systems for buildings, which consumes more than 40% of the total building energy consumed on average. Since people are spending more time staying indoor, the indoor environmental conditions have to be taken into special considerations. One of the most important aspects for indoor environmental conditions is occupants' thermal comfort sensations. Occupants will be more productive and healthy with good indoor thermal comfort sensations. In this research, we will introduce the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) networked models of energy consumption with indoor air temperature and velocity as two main subjects of investigation. Then, a swarm-type sparse Firefly Algorithm (FA-MSE regression) is developed for ACMV optimizations of balancing both thermal comfort sensations and energy consumption. The numerical results show that the recommended optimizations could potentially save up to 16% of energy consumption of an experimental ACMV system in the thermal laboratory of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

This study aimed to determine the specific correlation between indoor air temperature and agitation of nursing home residents with dementia. Agitated behaviors of 21 residents, living in 1 nursing home, were assessed for a 10-month period using the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI). The CMAI Total Frequency scores were found to increase significantly when indoor average temperatures deviated from 22.6°C. In addition, cumulative exposure to temperatures higher than 26°C and lower than 20°C was linearly correlated with CMAI Total Frequency scores. Results showed that agitated behaviors not only affected the person manifesting them but were found to be disruptive for other residents and the delivery of care. Agitation can, therefore, be potentially reduced by limiting the range of indoor air temperature variations, and aged care providers should ensure that a thermally comfortable environment is provided in nursing homes to enhance comfort and well-being of all occupants.

It is architecturally accepted that building form and design is considered as one of the most important aspects in affecting indoor temperature. The total area of building plan might be identical, but the design will have a major influence on the total area of external walls. This will have a clear impact on the amount of heat exchange with outdoor. Moreover, it will affect the position and area of glazing system. This has not received enough consideration in research by the specialists, since most of the publications are highlighting the impact of building envelope in terms of physical heat transfer in buildings. This research will investigate the impact of orientation of various building forms in various climatic regions. It will be concluded that orientation and glazing to wall ratio were recognized to be the most effective variables despite the shape of the building. However, linear ad radial forms were found more appropriate shapes almost across the continent., {"references":["Morrissey, J., Moore, T., Horne, R., 2011. 'Affordable passive solar design in a temperate climate: An experiment in residential building orientation'. Journal of Renewable Energy. 36, 568-577.","Bekkouche, S., Benouaz, T., Yaiche, M., Cherier, M., Hamadani, M., Chellali, F., 2011. 'Introduction to control of solar gain and internal temperatures by thermal insulation, proper orientation and eaves'. Journal of Energy and Buildings. 43, 2414-2421.","Hamdani, M., Benouaz, T., Cherier, M., 2012. 'Study and Effect of Orientation two Room of Buildings Located in Ghardaïa, Algeria'. Journal of Energy Procedia. 18, 632 – 639.","Assem, E., 2011. 'Correlating thermal transmittance limits of walls and roofs to orientation and solar absorption'. Journal of Energy and Buildings. 43, 3173–3180.","Schlueter A, and Thesseling F., 2009. 'Building information model based energy/exergy performance assessment in early design stages'. Automation in Construction. 18(2), 153-163.","Spanos I, Simons M, and Holmes KL. 2005 'Cost savings by application of passive solar heating'. Structural Survey. 23(2), 111-130.","I. Geoghraphy, Climate zones. Available online from accessed on 18.03.2017.","Tsikaloudaki, K. Laskos, Th. Theodosiou, D. Bikas, Assessing cooling energy performance of windows for office building in the Mediterranean zone, Energy and Building, 49 (2012), pp. 192–19.","Tavares, P., Gaspar, A., Martins, A., Frontini, F. (2014) 'Evaluation of electrochromic windows impact in the energy performance of buildings in Mediterranean climates' Journal of Energy Policy 67, 68-81.\n[10]\tElisabeth, G. André, H. 'Natural cooling strategies efficiency in an office building with a double-skin façad' Journal of Energy and Buildings. 36 (2004) 1139–1152.\n[11]\tElisabeth, G. André, H. 'The most efficient position of shading devices in a double-skin façade' Journal of Energy and Buildings, 39 (2007) 364-373.\n[12]\tEl-Monteleb, A. 'Using simulation for studying the influence of vertical shading devices on the thermal performance in residential building: Case study of Assiut city' Journal of Ain Shams Engineering (2012) 3, 163-174\n[13]\tChing, F. Architecture form, space and order. John Wiley and Sons, (2007), Canada.\n[14]\tAlwetaishi, M., Elamary, A. (2016) 'Impact of Building Shape on Indoor Building Performance Combined with Cost of Structure' International Journal of Applied Engineering Research 11, 8622-8630, Research India Publications."]}

Background The operating room (OR) of the hospital is a special unit that requires a relatively clean environment. The microbial concentration of an indoor OR extrinsically influences surgical site infection rates. The aim of this study was to use active sampling methods to assess microbial colony counts in working ORs and to determine the factors affecting air contamination in a tertiary referral medical center. Methods This study was conducted in 28 operating rooms located in a 3000-bed medical center in northern Taiwan. The microbiologic air counts were measured using an impactor air sampler from May to August 2015. Information about the procedure-related operative characteristics and surgical environment (environmental- and personnel-related factors) characteristics was collected. Results A total of 250 air samples were collected during surgical procedures. The overall mean number of bacterial colonies in the ORs was 78 ± 47 cfu/m3. The mean number of colonies was the highest for transplant surgery (123 ± 60 cfu/m3), followed by pediatric surgery (115 ± 30.3 cfu/m3). A total of 25 samples (10%) contained pathogens; Coagulase-negative staphylococcus (n = 12, 4.8%) was the most common pathogen. After controlling for potentially confounding factors by a multiple regression analysis, the surgical stage had the significantly highest correlation with bacterial counts (r = 0.346, p

In this paper, temperature fluctuation in the room which was tested in which environment is built by the domestic air conditioner Different air conditioning set temperature may cause different temperature fluctuation in each position. From the subjective assessment results it can be known that, under the thermal comfort environment condition, the biggest acceptable temperature fluctuation is obtained and is 0.6 °C in summer and 0.8 °C in winter. In summer working condition, temperature fluctuation in each test point is compared with the acceptable temperature fluctuation (0.6 °C) and then the satisfaction rate for each working condition can be obtained. The test results show that the highest satisfaction rate about temperature fluctuation is 94% when the indoor air temperature is about 26 °C. Air temperature higher or lower than 26 °C will reduce the satisfaction rate about temperature fluctuation. Working condition in the winter, using the same method, the satisfaction rate about temperature fluctuation for each working condition can be obtained, it is higher than the summer, it can reach to 90% in every working condition. It is because that tester wears a lot of clothes in winter, the clothes can reduce the body’s sensitivity to the environment temperature changes. Test results are matched well with subjective assessment. The research in this article can provide basis for thermal comfort evaluation of typical residential air conditioning room and also can guide the design of air condition system in order to ensure the thermal comfort of the room.

Bioclimatic design strategies have been proposed for decades, on a qualitative basis, because a quantitative approach, ineludibly based on dynamic measurements or simulations, was too expansive and complex. If simulation considerably evolved, in the last years, in terms of speed, cost and diffusion of available tools, their utilization is still complicated by the managing a huge amount of hourly data. The passive behavior of a building, moreover, is not effortlessly synthetized: conditioned buildings may be easily compared just summing the hourly consumption of primary energy, while buildings with no thermal plant need more sophisticated statistical analyses because in these kind of buildings, it is particularly difficult to assess the effect thermal inertia. The existing school buildings stock has a strong need of energy renovation in accordance with Government vision of a community 24 hours a day use and consequently increasing the requirement of comfort conditions and energy consumption. Hence, a current school building heated and not cooled is considered as application field of the novel methodology and a classroom is used to test different energy retrofit solutions compared against a base-line, in terms of capacity to decrease the indoor air temperature variation. The analyzed simulations have been thus compared with ideal comfort conditions by an original analysis approach based on a visual tool as a support for designers in choices comparison to simply assess and visualize the performance of building technologies.

Indoor air temperature and relative humidity represent important parameters for health and working efficiency of buildings occupants. Beside the moderation of temperature, investigation of hygric properties of building materials with connection to indoor relative humidity variation became recognized as a relevant factor for energy efficient building maintenance. The moisture buffer value introduced in the Nordtest protocol can be used for estimation of moisture buffer capacity of building materials or their multi-layered systems. In this paper, both the ideal and real moisture buffer values are examined on the basis of simulation of diurnal relative humidity fluctuations in plasters with incorporated PCM admixture. Retrieved data points to a complex effect of the tested plasters on possible moderation of buildings interior climate.

Панферов Сергей Владимирович, канд. техн. наук, доцент, Военный учебно-научный центр Военно-воздушных сил «Военно-воздушная академия им. проф. Н.Е. Жуковского и Ю.А. Гагарина», филиал в г. Челябинске. Тренин Николай Александрович, канд. воен. наук, начальник кафедры, Военный учебно- научный центр Военно-воздушных сил «Военно-воздушная академия им. проф. Н.Е. Жуковского и Ю.А. Гагарина», филиал в г. Челябинске. Панферов Владимир Иванович, д-р техн. наук, профессор, Военный учебно-научный центр Военно-воздушных сил «Военно-воздушная академия им. проф. Н.Е. Жуковского и Ю.А. Гагарина», филиал в г. Челябинске; tgsiv@mail.ru. S.V. Panferov, N.A. Trenin, V.I. Panferov, tgsiv@mail.ru Russian Air Force Military Educational and Scientific Center “Air Force Academy named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky and Y.A. Gagarin”, Chelyabinsk branch, Russian Federation Выводится структура математической модели теплового режима здания (ТРЗ), учитывающая нестационарное распределение температуры по толщине его наружного ограждения. Подключением к данной модели разработанной ранее динамической модели системы отопления (СО) определили общую структуру математической модели ТРЗ и его СО. Входными управляющими воздействиями для общей структуры модели являются температура и расход теплоносителя на входе системы отопления, а выходными величинами – температура внутреннего воздуха и температура обратной воды. Отмечается, что ранее полученные статические и динамические модели ТРЗ и СО являются частными случаями данной структуры. Приводятся данные по решению задачи параметрической идентификации модели. Результаты работы могут быть использованы как для исследования особенностей режимов работы СО и ТРЗ, так и для разработки высококачественных управляющих устройств, в частности, для настройки погодного регулятора в системах отопления. It displays the structure of the mathematical model of the thermal regime of the building , taking into account the time-dependent temperature distribution in the thickness of its outer fence. Connecting to this model, the dynamic model of the heating system previously developed determined the overall structure of the mathematical model of the thermal regime of the building and its heating system. The input control actions for the general structure of the model are tamper-round and coolant flow rate of the heating system input and output values – internal air temperature and return water temperature. It is noted that previously received the static and dynamic models of the thermal regime of the building and the heating system are special cases of this structure. The data on the solution of the problem of parametric identification model. The results can be used for studies of the modes of operation of the heating system and the thermal conditions of the building and for the development of high quality control devices, in particular weather regulator to adjust the heating system.

Occupant window-opening behaviour in Indian offices is a nascent field. This paper relies on the thermal comfort field study data from 28 Indian offices in Hyderabad and Chennai. Occupants in naturally ventilated buildings used the windows and doors adaptively as the seasons changed and the temperature varied. We found that 50% of the windows would be opened at an indoor air temperature of 30 °C, using logistic regression. We noted some non-thermal factors possibly affecting the adaptive operation of controls as well, including: design and construction, operation and maintenance, environmental, sociocultural, attitudinal and behavioural factors. A window's potential for modifying the comfort temperature hinges on the effective handling of these hurdles. We further categorized the barriers into those in the occupant's realm and beyond. Each category is further identified with the extent to which the barrier interferes with the control as an adaptive opportunity.

In order to investigate the thermal comfort, quality of sleep and behaviour of the occupants of Japanese bedrooms in the hot and humid season, we have measured the air temperature and relative humidity in the 26 bedrooms of 10 houses, and conducted a thermal comfort, depth of sleep and occupant behaviour survey with 31 residents, obtaining 1176 votes. The mean indoor air temperature in the rooms during the survey period was 26.3–27.9°C. The residents sleep in the bedrooms, where the indoor air temperature is high. The mean comfort temperature is 26.4–27.1°C. The thermal comfort of residents is high and the depth of sleep is normal for the given thermal environment. The results showed that residents are thermally satisfied and slept well in the bedrooms using various thermal adjustments, such as cooling, fans, windows and clothing insulation.

The analysis focuses on the influence of boundary conditions on the final energy intensity of selected groups of houses. The individual energy intensity will be set for the selected buildings. For these buildings, the standard boundary conditions will change (indoor air temperature). The deviation values of resulting energy consumption will be defined by statistical evaluation.

This study investigates the effect of tree-shading on energy demand in two similar buildings. Outdoor and indoor air temperature was measured simultaneously for a period of 6 months. Five different base temperatures ranging from 20 °C to 25 °C were chosen and used to calculate cooling degree-days. Degree-day and cooling/warming rate methods were used to estimate cooling energy requirements for the two buildings. Indoor and outdoor cooling degree days were observed to be more for the un-shaded buildings compared to the tree-shaded one. Indoor warming and cooling rate show that the un-shaded building warms earlier and faster than the tree-shaded. Results indicate that tree-shading can save up to 34,500 NGN (US$218) on energy costs. The study shows the role of greening in reducing energy demand in buildings.

The main objective in brooding is to efficiently and economically provide a comfortable, healthy environment for growing birds. Bird's age is a governor factor to determine the heating load for broiler housing particularly during winter season. Forced air heating system should be put the broiler in thermal comfortable zone to obtain the higher production. Therefore, using perforated polyethylene duct to improve this heating system may cause better thermal conditions inside the broiler housing by reducing the temperature stratifications. So that the experiment was conducted out in private broiler house during winter season of 2011, under the climatic conditions of middle area of coastal Delta, Egypt (latitude and longitude angles are 30.67°N and 30.98°E, respectively). The obtained results showed that using perforated polyethylene duct increases the indoor air temperature throughout the bird's life, resulting in saved gas consumption by 32.6%, reduced litter moisture content from 41.5 to 32.8 %, reduced supplementary heatfrom 45.72 to 32.4 kWh and increased feed conversion efficiency from 60.4 to 62.2 at the end of birds life.

A calculation method for cooling load of stratified air conditioning system based on the simultaneously solving model is presented. Thermal environment experiment under summer condition is carried out in a large space building, indoor air temperature, inner wall surface temperature and cooling capacity were obtained; the stratified air conditioning cooling load calculated by the simultaneously solving model is compared with air conditioning cooling capacity in experiment, the relative error is 14%, taking the loss of cooling capacity and leakage loss, it can be thought that the simultaneously solving model can be used to calculate cooling load of stratified air conditioning system.

The effects of nocturnal ventilation and radiant cooling/heating floors on indoor air temperatures in an office building in hot arid region are evaluated. Climatic and indoor temperatures are measured and compared against predicted ones using TRNSYS®, obtaining a 7% difference. A parametric study was conducted that varied floor temperatures to simulate radiant floor heating on the coolest day and nocturnal ventilation or/and radiant floor cooling on the hottest day in 2009. Results indicated that, during the winter, radiant floor heating increased the indoor air temperatures from 13.5oC to 19.6oC. During the summer, the indoor air temperature decreased from 32.1oC to 27.4oC at midnight, with a nocturnal ventilation of 5 ACH. Combining ventilation and radiant floor cooling decreased the indoor air temperatures to 26.9oC (0.5oC lower). As a result, the effect of nighttime ventilation was significant on indoor temperatures in the building; however, the effect of radiant floor cooling was almost negligible.

A simultaneously solving model is established to predict inner surface temperature and indoor air temperature. The radiation of the model is set with direct radiant model, Gebhart radiant model and effective radiant model respectively. Under different heat flow and supply air volume, inner surface temperature and indoor air temperature are calculated by the model and compared with measured data. The research results show that Gebhart radiant model has same calculation accuracy with effective radiant model and it can reduce the amount of calculation.

PCMs (Phase change materials) are used to enhance the thermal storage capacity of building walls, decrease indoor air temperature fluctuations, and shift peak heat transfer rates to off-peak times. PCM location within building walls is recognized to be critical for the optimum performance of the system. One possible integration of the PCM into a wall could be via a PCM-layer or “shield,” herein referred to as “PCMTS” (PCM Thermal Shield). A prototype PCMTS was developed and its thermal performance was evaluated in three different locations within the cavity of a typical North American residential wall system using a dynamic wall simulator in this paper. The experimental results showed that, compared to a wall without a PCMTS, the peak heat fluxes were reduced by as much as 11% when the thermal shield was placed in the inward-most location next to the internal face of the gypsum wallboard within the wall cavity. The PCM thermal shield produced only small effects on the peak heat fluxes when it was placed half way between the enclosing surfaces of the internal cavity of the wall and almost no effect when it was placed next to the internal face of the outermost layer of the wall.

In this study, concentrations of bacteria and fungi were measured in two high-rise, tunnel-ventilated egg production houses in North Carolina during winter, spring, and summer using Andersen six-stage samplers. Average concentrations of culturable airborne bacteria and fungi ranged from 2.2 A— 10 5 colony forming units (CFU) m -3 to 1.1 A— 10 6 CFU m -3 and from 1.5 A— 10 3 to 2.8 A— 10 3 CFU m -3 , respectively. In-house bacterial concentrations significantly differed over the three seasons but did not vary by time of day. In-house fungal concentrations were not significantly different over seasons or at different times of day. Among all influencing factors, indoor air temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and house ventilation rate (Q) had significant impacts on in-house bioaerosol concentrations. Bacterial concentrations were significantly higher on the second floor of the high-rise layer house, while fungal concentrations were not significantly different on the two floors. Emission rates of both bacteria and fungi were highest in summer, possibly due to the elevated ventilation rates during the summer season. The findings of this study advance our knowledge about bioaerosol concentrations and emissions as impacted by various factors in egg production facilities.

Most historic churches are characterised by low thermal efficiency due primarily to their architectural design and the traditional materials used in their construction. Heating the huge volumes of air involved may be more or less effective depending on the HVAC system used. Up until very recently, traditional heating has been the system of choice in Spanish churches. The present study analysed the parish church at Talamanca de Jarama (a village on the outskirts of Madrid), where the forced hot-air system was found to induce wide fluctuations in indoor thermal-hygrometric (T/RH) conditions, in turn translating into the temporal and horizontal stratification of temperature and relative humidity. As a result, the thermal comfort sought for parishioners is not reached, for the air remains cold at pew height while heat accumulates in the upper area of the church. A three-dimensional sensor network was designed to monitor these conditions. Suspended from helium balloons, the sensors could record the indoor air temperature and humidity without causing any damage whatsoever to church property. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., This study was funded under projects CGL2010-19554 and CGL2011-27902 and forms part of the GEOMATERIALES (S2009/MAT-1629) and CONSOLIDER-TCP (CSD2007-0058) research programmes.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is an important topic which impacts on energy efficiency and also productivity of occupants. Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual comfort and aural comfort are four main physical parameters which are normally used to determine IEQ. In this paper, the results of field study on IEQ conducted in the offices and student study areas of 6 air conditioned buildings in Universiti Tenaga Nasional in Malaysia are presented. The study was conducted during the month of October and November 2013, collecting a full set of objective physical measurements and subjective assessments through questionnaires. The measured environmental parameters are indoor air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, carbon dioxide concentration, sound pressure level and luminance. The subjective responses concern the judgment of the respondents about the IEQ parameters at the moment of measurements. The results obtained showed that 86% of the respondents found that the IEQ is acceptable and the environmental conditions are mainly within the limits set by the various guidelines and standards in Malaysia. The neutral IEQ values were also determined through linear regression analysis of the sensation votes.