Over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of airtightness tests performed in Europe either for specific high-performance buildings programmes or for a wide range of buildings in regulatory contexts. This has led to the development of competent tester schemes to contain potential legal and competition issues.
The objective of this webinar was to give information on the status and trends in airtightness testing in Denmark, Ireland, and Sweden including the details and feedback on competent tester schemes.
Ventilative cooling—i.e., the use of natural or mechanical ventilation strategies to cool indoor spaces—can be very effective to reduce the cooling energy demand in buildings in summer or mid-season conditions. This webinar was part of a broader series focusing on ventilative cooling in energy performance, within the context of compliance with building regulations in several countries.
Ventilative cooling –i.e., the use of natural or mechanical ventilation strategies to cool indoor spaces– can be very effective to reduce the cooling energy demand in buildings in summer or mid-season conditions. The principal objective of this webinar series was to give the status, needs, and perspectives on developments to consider ventilative cooling in energy performance assessment methods in several countries. This first webinar will focus on the developments in Austria, Denmark and France.
Ventilative cooling reduces overheating, improves summer comfort and decreases cooling loads. It is therefore one of the most efficient ways to improve summer comfort. Conditions on site, thermal inertia, solar control and other constraints have an impact on the choice of the system and its design. The overall performance is linked to good sizing, design, correct usage of thermal storage, and last but not least a correct control, commissioning and maintenance.
The implementation of the EPBD recast puts increasing pressure on the market to achieve better building and ductwork airtightness: for most European climates and countries, good airtightness levels are necessary to achieve nearly zero-energy buildings. The webinar aimed to inform about legislative drivers that have brought to light new concerns and stimulated new initiatives. Recent trends in European regulations as well as field studies supporting the development of competent testing schemes were discussed.
While building airtightness is a key concern in Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings in most European climates, there exists already a wide range of commercially-available products specifically designed to minimize leakage in building envelopes. The objective of this webinar was to give information on the performance and properties of these products based on research including laboratory and field tests. The speakers also provided information on standards already published and under development on this subject.
Following the recast of the energy performance of buildings directive published in May 2010, EU countries will have to implement regulations to increase the number of nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) in the next few years, and to generalize nearly zero energy targets in new buildings and major renovations. In most European countries, building and ductwork leaks have a significant impact on energy performance and indoor climate and therefore merit special attention in the context of this directive.
AIVC defines smart ventilation as a process to continually adjust the ventilation system of a building in order to provide the desired Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) benefits while minimizing energy consumption, utility bills and other non-IAQ costs (thermal discomfort, noise, etc.). Smart ventilation responds to one or more of the following: building occupancy, outdoor conditions, electricity grid needs, operation of other building systems, direct sensing of contaminants.
The QUALICHeCK-TightVent webinar: "Building airtightness and initiatives to improve the quality of the works" was held on Tuesday 12 January, 10:00-11:30 (Brussels time). The objective of this webinar was to give background information on selected initiatives to improve the quality of the works with respect to building airtightness.
The programme included 4 presentations of 20 minutes as follows:
