Successful Clima 2013 Conference

Editorial

Olli Seppänen

Professor,  Editor-in-chief

Clima 2013 World Conference organized in Prague was a success. 656 out of 702 accepted papers were presented at the conference. The papers were reviewed by the members of the scientific committee and other international experts. A total of 230 reviewers participated in the review process of the proposed papers. The papers were presented to 955 participants from 60 countries in several sessions with long and short presentations and posters. The sessions were chaired by 162 experts.

The most common topic of the papers was Energy Efficiency of Heating, Ventilating and Cooling of Buildings (23%). An almost equal number of presentations dealt with Good Indoor Environment (22%). It is an excellent sign that the experts see energy efficiency and good indoor environment as equally important. The importance of healthy indoor air was also recognized in the European Commission´s ‘The Air 2013’ Campaign. Politicians are paying more and more attention to healthy indoor environment – action plans are still missing but policy documents are under discussion. Indoor Environment is not only a question of the health of building occupants but also a question of productivity and performance of the occupants. These effects are well summarized in an article in this issue.

In addition to the normal technical sessions, REHVA organized 25 workshops parallel to the technical sessions; in addition, three seminars were held during the conference and some training sessions before the conference.

REHVA annual meeting took place just before the Clima Conference with the normal agenda. The new president, Professor KarelKabele from the Czech Republic, was installed and two new members were elected to the Board – Frank Hovorka from France and Manuel Carlos Gameiroda Silva from Portugal. Their interviews, published in this issue, show that in the near future REHVA will focus on the same issues as before but will lay more emphasis on cooperation with its members, other organisations and the building industry. These activities include increasing the number of events, technical reports and perhaps position papers, which would be important independent sources of reliable information on topical issues for decision makers. Education and training will also get more attention during the coming years. REHVA will continue to develop educational material and encourage students to join REHVA activities through its members. The article by the winner of the student competition in Prague in 2013 shows the high quality of the thesis work and the relevance of the topics of theses for all EU member states.

REHVA Committees met again during the annual meeting. The results of the committees and REHVA Task Forces were reviewed and made available to the members; among these are three new REHVA Guidebooks on Mixing Air Distribution, Geotabs (Use of Ground Heat Storage with Heat Pumps), and Prevention of Legionellosis in Water Systems. These are available at the REHVA website. In addition, a report on Net Zero Energy Buildings was published. The report started a discussion on how to define renewable energy sources while evaluating building energy performance, with a focus on how to define and accept the ‘near-by’ use of renewables in the net energy balance.

All the papers presented in the Clima2013 Conference, totaling 6882 pages, will soon be available in various formats. The papers will serve as a reliable source of information for energy efficient buildings for years to come. The workshop summaries will be available soon as a REHVA report.

At the end of the closing session, the next Conference Clima 2016 was announced: Aalborg, Denmark, May 22-25, 2016.