The Healthy Buildings Europe 2015 conference was held from 18-20 May 2015 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
This conference was the first example of a new concept to continue the renowned ISIAQ Healthy Buildings conference series at a different pace and parallel at different places around the world, bringing it closer to regional issues and practices. The conference was fully booked with over 450 attendees, 270 papers accepted and 16 workshops.
REHVA has endorsed this conference and organized a workshop.
The theme of REHVA’s workshop was: ‘European IAQ standardization & EN 15251’. The moderator of this workshop was Jarek Kurnitski of Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia and also Vice-President of REHVA.
Presentations were made by Jaap Hogeling of ISSO, The Netherlands and REHVA journal Editor-in-Chief; Bjarne Olesen professor at the Technical University of Denmark and Arnold Edeling of Purafil, The Netherlands.
EN15251 - which specifies how design criteria are established and used for dimensioning of systems - was explained by Hogeling and Olesen. The standard how to establish and the main parameters to be used as input for building energy calculation and long term evaluation of the indoor environment. It is the standard that identifies parameters to be used for monitoring and displaying of the indoor environment as recommended in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Edeling discussed the topic of energy conservation and improved IAQ with existing ventilation standards.
After the short introductions, there was an active interaction with the audience. By raising green or red cards, those present could agree or disagree with showed positions. Not surprisingly, during this workshop, but also in other workshops, the majority often was wondering why we are still working on heating and ventilation, if no one is paying attention to health, comfort and productivity. Not only in research, but also as a consultant; engineers often forget about the people that spend their time indoors.
The presentations are available online.
Presenters and moderator of the REHVA workshop, from left to right:
Jaap Hogeling; Bjarne Olesen; Arnold Edeling; Jarek Kurnitski
A good indoor environment means good air quality and thermal comfort. Acoustics and light are extra’s? NO!