35th AIVC- 4th TightVent- 2nd venticool
Ventilation and airtightness in transforming the building stock to high performance
Poznań, Poland, 24-25 September, 2014
Many countries are developing ambitious plans to reduce drastically energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector. This sector offers great abatement potential especially in existing buildings—as new constructions represent each year typically less than 1‐2% of the building stock—as well as in the management of space conditioning, as 30% to 70% of buildings’ energy use is dissipated through ventilation and infiltration. Building renovation entails a number of challenges to meet high energy performance as well as good indoor climate conditions. Provisions must be made to ensure good indoor air quality by limiting indoor contaminant sources and providing fresh air bearing in mind potential issues with the quality of the outdoor air. The need for active cooling should be minimized by addressing the management of solar loads, airflow rates and thermal mass. Another challenge lies in the reduction of infiltration losses through the building envelope, which is often a major barrier to achieve low‐energy buildings. While a number of initiatives have triggered significant progress on these issues for new buildings, the existing stock is lagging behind due to specific technical and policy constraints. Therefore, this conference aims to focus on ventilation and airtightness challenges in transforming the building stock to high performance, with the following major themes:- Thermal comfort and ventilative cooling—i.e., the application of ventilation airflow rates to reduce the cooling loads in buildings;
- Air infiltration through leaks in the building envelope and ductwork;
- Ventilation in relation to Indoor Air Quality and health.