Buildings can breathe naturally, without the use of mechanical systems, if you design the spaces properly. This accessible and thorough guide shows you how in more than 260 color diagrams and photographs illustrating case studies and CFD simulations. You can achieve truly natural ventilation, by considering the building's structure, envelope, energy use, and form, as well as giving the occupants thermal comfort and healthy indoor air. By using scientific and architectural visualization tools included here, you can develop ventilation strategies without an engineering background. Handy sections that summarize the science, explain rules of thumb, and detail the latest research in thermal and fluid dynamics will keep your designs sustainable, energy efficient, and up-to-date.

The updated 5th edition of Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings identifies the most energy-efficient home appliances by brand name and model number. Reader-friendly and packed with illustrations, this handbook helps any homeowner save energy and money. Chapters include: -- energy use and the environment -- insulating and sealing air leaks -- new window options -- space heating -- cooling and air conditioning -- water heating -- refrigeration -- lighting...and much more This book is as compact and efficient as its subject matter. Its 274 pages are crammed with money-saving information. A directory of manufacturers helps the reader access purchase information on recommended appliances.

This book provides readers with essential knowledge enabling the successful design of today's new energy efficient HVAC systems. The author introduces important concepts such as Knowledge Categorization, Performance Based Design Standards, and Quantification of Uncertainty in Energy Modeling for Buildings. Pivotal topics that all HVAC and architectural engineers must master in order to navigate the green building renaissance are given focused attention, including the role of renewables, air quality, automatic controls, and thermal comfort. Relevant ASHRAE standards, as well as sustainability scoring systems such as BREEAM, HQE, LEED and CASBEE are explained in depth. Armed with the material contained in this practical reference, students and practitioners alike will become more effective and prepared for engineering success.

The Journal of Light Construction has assembled an all-star team of national building and energy experts to help you understand energy efficient construction methods and apply them to your new construction and remodeling projects. This practical book describes in detail the proven field-tested techniques that are both cost- effective and resource-efficient. Many energy-efficient building techniques are overly complicated. They're costly. And they frequently fail to deliver the promised energy performance. In contrast, this hands-on book from JLC cuts through the confusion and identifies the best building techniques and materials to help you achieve superior energy performance in all your projects. Without breaking the bank.

This guideline defines ventilation and then natural ventilation. It explores the design requirements for natural ventilation in the context of infection control, describing the basic principles of design, construction, operation and maintenance for an effective natural ventilation system to control infection in health-care settings.

The role and influence of building services engineers is undergoing rapid change and is pivotal to achieving low-carbon buildings. However, textbooks in the field have largely focused on the detailed technicalities of HVAC systems, often with little wider context. This book addresses that need by embracing a contemporary understanding of energy efficiency imperatives, together with a strategic approach to the key design issues impacting upon carbon performance, in a concise manner. The key conceptual design issues for planning the principal systems that influence energy efficiency are examined in detail. In addition, the following issues are addressed in turn: Background issues for sustainability and the design process Developing a strategic approach to energy-efficient design How to undertake load assessments System comparison and selection Space planning for services Post-occupancy evaluation of completed building services In order to deliver sustainable buildings, a new perspective is needed amongst building and services engineering designers, from the outset of the conceptual design stage and throughout the whole design process. In this book, students and practitioners alike will find the ideal introduction to this new approach.

Tall buildings are not the only solution for achieving sustainability through increased density in cities but, given the scale of current population shifts, the vertical city is increasingly being seen as the most viable solution for many urban centers. However, the full implications of concentrating more people on smaller plots of land by building vertically - whether for work, residential or leisure functions - needs to be better researched and understood. It is generally accepted that we need to reduce the energy equation – in both operating and embodied terms – of every component and system in the building as an essential element in making it more sustainable. Mechanical HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) in tall office buildings typically account for 30-40 percent of overall building energy consumption. The increased efficiency (or possibly even elimination) of these mechanical systems – through the provision of natural ventilation – could thus be argued to be the most important single step we could make in making tall buildings more sustainable. This guide sets out recommendations for every phase of the planning, construction and operation of natural ventilation systems in these buildings, including local climatic factors that need to be taken into account, how to plan for seasonal variations in weather, and the risks in adopting different implementation strategies. All of the recommendations are based on analysis of the research findings from richly-illustrated international case studies. Tried and tested solutions to real-life problems make this an essential guide for anyone working on the design and operation of tall buildings anywhere in the world. This is the first technical guide from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Tall Buildings & Sustainability Working Group looking in depth at a key element in the creation of tall buildings with a much-reduced environmental impact, while taking the industry closer to an appreciation of what constitutes a sustainable tall building, and what factors affect the sustainability threshold for tall.

Quantifying exergy losses in the energy supply system of buildings reveals the potential for energy improvement, which cannot be discovered using conventional energy analysis. Thermoeconomics combines economic and thermodynamic analysis by applying the concept of cost (an economic concept) to exergy, as exergy is a thermodynamic property fit for this purpose, in that it combines the quantity of energy with its quality factor. Exergy Analysis and Thermoeconomics of Buildings applies exergy analysis methods and thermoeconomics to the built environment. The mechanisms of heat transfer throughout the envelope of buildings are analyzed from an exergy perspective and then to the building thermal installations, analyzing the different components, such as condensing boilers, absorption refrigerators, microcogeneration plants, etc., including solar installations and finally the thermal facilities as a whole. A detailed analysis of the cost formation process is presented, which has its physical roots firmly planted in the second law of thermodynamics. The basic principles and the rules of cost allocation, in energy units (exergy cost), in monetary units (exergoeconomic cost), and in CO2 emissions (exergoenvironmental cost), based on the so-called Exergy Cost Theory are presented and applied to thermal installations of buildings. Clear and rigorous in its exposition, Exergy Analysis and Thermoeconomics of Buildings discusses exergy analysis and thermoeconomics and the role they could play in the analysis and design of building components, either the envelope or the thermal facilities, as well as the diagnosis of thermal installations. This book moves progressively from introducing the basic concepts to applying them. Exergy Analysis and Thermoeconomics of Buildings provides examples of specific cases throughout this book. These cases include real data, so that the results obtained are useful to interpret the inefficiencies and losses that truly occur in actual installations; hence, the assessment of their effects encourages the manner to improve efficiency. - Applies exergy analysis methods for the installation of building thermal facilities equipment components, including pipes, valves, heat exchangers, boilers and heat pumps - Helps readers determine the operational costs of heating and cooling building systems - Includes exergy analysis methods that are devoted to absorption refrigerators, adsorption cooling systems, basic air conditioning processes, ventilation systems and solar systems, either thermal and PV - Discusses the direct application of exergy analysis concepts, including examples of buildings with typical heating, DHW and air conditioning installations

Research volume on urban energy transition that will have wide interdisciplinary appeal to researchers in energy, urban and environmental studies.