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Introduction/purpose: Safety in high residential buildings presents a very important and always actual task. In case of some unforeseen and dangerous occurrences, their residents must be evacuated. Fire, earthquakes, and terrorism are only some of such situations. The speed of evacuation from high residential buildings depends on many different factors. A particularly difficult and complex evacuation task concerns buildings without fire escape stairs. Methods: The modeling method was used in this paper. Based on a real object - a residential building, an appropriate simulation model was realized in appropriate simulation software. Results: The results of this paper have shown that, out of four scenarios, the fastest evacuation was for the evacuation speed of 1.75 m/s. The first two scenarios did not report any jams, unlike the third and fourth scenario; in the third scenario, the occupants' speeds were 0.75 m/s and 1.25 m/s while in the fourth scenario, the simulated occupants' speeds were from 0.75 m/s to 1.75 m/s. Conclusion:The usage of appropriate simulation software enables fast, precise, safe and cheap calculation of evacuation times and it can significantly improve evacuation procedures and evacuation strategies.

Sustainability issues in residential buildings in many cities of the world and the search for factors that influence the level of maintenance of residential buildings, with appropriate measures to assist in the solutions to the problems of building maintenance has been an issue of concern, most especially to the house designers and developers in Niger State, Nigeria. This paper therefore planned to determine factors that influence the level of maintenance of residential buildings' standards. The research method employed was descriptive and inferential survey. The data collected were subjected to uni-variate analysis and multi-variate analysis, using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found among others that factors that influence the level of maintenance of residential buildings standards includes, (i) building's state of repair, (ii) building type and (iii) Owners/Occupiers highest level of education. The paper concludes that for any meaningful approach to maintainability of residential buildings in view of adequate provision of descent accommodation for the populace, the state Government need to embark on public enlightenment campaign for the residential buildings' owners/occupants on the need for residential buildings and building premises maintenance and the implication for failure to maintain buildings and buildings' premises regularly. Keywords: Appraisal, building standards, maintenance, residential building, sustainability.

As the residential buildings sector accounts for around 30 percent of the final energy demand in Germany, this sector is increasingly becoming the focus of public attention with regard to climate change. In this book, decisions on energy consumption by private households are examined. The analyses are based on several empirical methods. The results show that the road to more sustainable energy consumption in residential buildings is not hampered by a lack of will on behalf of the consumers. However one should be realistic that there are many instances where improving thermal institution involves additional economic costs for individual households.

In average, man spends about 90% of the time inside enclosed spaces, in both residential and office buildings, exposed to consistently higher concentrations of air pollutants than outdoors, which has led to the increased rate of allergies and asthma incidences. In the last decade, public and governmental awareness on indoor air quality (IAQ) has been growing. Portugal implemented the National Building Energy and Indoor Air Quality Certification System in 2006 which imposes periodic IAQ audits for office buildings. However, in residential buildings, the only normative imposition related to IAQ is the obligation of a minimum air change rate of 0.6 h-1. The number of potential pollutants inside residential buildings is significant, and even low concentration levels can cause health problems if combined effects are considered. Additionally, the inhabitants' behaviour can have a significant impact on IAQ. Therefore, the assessment of IQA is very important. This paper presents the application of the IAQ audit methodology, defined by the Portuguese legislation for office buildings, to residential buildings. The concentration of suspended particles, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, formaldehyde and total volatile organic compounds were measured as well as the air change rate. A standard questionnaire was delivered to the inhabitants to also obtain a subjective assessment of the IAQ. The goal of this study was to verify the IAQ conditions inside the Portuguese residential buildings and to establish a comprehensive IAQ audit approach for residential buildings. The results gathered will also be used to identify the main problems of Portuguese residential building stock and to develop guidelines to improve IAQ in residential ...

The environmental impacts deriving from pollution due to the high use of cooling and heating systems in buildings have made it necessary to study alternative methods of designing or upgrading existing buildings. In this work the concepts of bioclimatic architecture are discussed and possible technological solutions for energy saving in the construction sector are presented. The solutions proposed concern orientation, the shape of the building and the internal volumetric arrangement. Attention is paid to internal comfort and the problem of convective motions related to the cooling of homes. Other solutions referring to the use of bioclimatic diagrams to determine the maximum and minimum temperatures to be considered for bioclimatic design are also proposed.

Solar thermal energy has been adopted in medium and long‐term energy strategies within EU countries for increasing the energy efficiency of buildings. In this context, the overall objective of this project consists in developing an innovative high performance and cost effective hybrid system (solar heat and electrical power). The initial application is to be implemented in residential buildings for on‐site electricity and heat generation using solar thermal energy. The proposed technology is expected to deliver 60% of domestic energy requirements (heating and domestic hot water) and provide 20% reduction in energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions compared to the best existing low carbon energy technologies. A benchmark on the energy demand for the different types of residential buildings in Europe serves as reference scenario to evaluate the potential applicability of the different existing renewable technologies and to establish a comparative framework in terms of quantitative values. Thus, the specific aim of this study consists in performing a state‐of‐the‐art on the different building typologies, which can host this technology, and their energy demands for heating and domestic hot water, as well as their associated CO2 emissions. ; This study has received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº723596 (Innova MicroSolar) and Nº 657466 (INPATH‐TES). The work is partially funded by the Spanish government ENE2015‐64117‐ C5‐1‐R (MINECO/FEDER) and ENE2015‐64117‐C5‐3‐R (MINECO/FEDER). GREA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2014 SGR 123). Alvaro de Gracia would like to thank Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI‐2014‐19940.

The origin of current climate change (unlike other past climate changes) is the increase in the so-called greenhouse effect. Several atmospheric gases are able to absorb infrared radiation intensively. Such gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), water vapour, as well as nitrous oxide (N2O) and other gases. They are permeable to incoming radiation, but block the infrared (heat) radiation reflected from the earth's surface. These gases are called greenhouse gases. One of the solutions to reduce the greenhouse effect is to implement energy efficiency measures in multi-apartment residential buildings. The total multi-apartment housing stock in Latvia continues to age. Most residential buildings in Latvia were built during the Soviet period (1946–1990), the second largest category – even before the Second World War. Only a very small proportion of buildings have been built since the restoration of the country's independence. As a result, the overall condition of buildings in Latvia can be assessed as poor or even unsatisfactory. Some multi-apartment buildings are so dilapidated that they endanger the safety and health of both tenants and the surrounding residents. The involvement of apartment owners and managers in the renewal of the housing stock is largely related to financing that they cannot afford to invest themselves. The support mechanism for the renovation of multi-apartment residential buildings is the European Union funds, as well as the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and ALTUM. In the ALTUM programme, the maximum grant or gift limit is 50% of the total eligible costs, while the other part of the financing is covered through a commercial bank that has a cooperation agreement with ALTUM or the funds or savings of the tenants. LIAA and ALTUM support programmes have different funding models. As a result of the research, it has been proven that the renovation of multi-apartment buildings is a complex, financially expensive and complicated project that cannot be implemented without the European Union co-financing.

By now, there is a consensus that non-residential buildings (commercial and public buildings) present important opportunities for reducing cost, fuel inputs and greenhouse gas emissions, especially because of their intensive use of electricity. Till now, however, in emerging economies energy efficiency opportunities in buildings are typically more focused on households. In Mexico, official government statistics suggest that the non-residential sector electricity demand is low compared to the residential and industrial sectors, but previous studies suggest that non-residential electricity use is underestimated due to the reliance of electricity tariff classes, which may not adequately distinguish large commercial buildings from industrial facilities. The analysis presented here follows the same general bottom-up methodology as two recent studies, but enhances them with a more rigorous and up-to-date assessment of electricity drivers of building sub-types from a variety of sources. The result is a more reliable estimate of non-residential electricity demand by building sub-type and climate zone. Non-residential buildings electricity demand in 2017 is found to be 66.9 TWh, which is nearly three times the official estimate of 22.6 TWh in the same year. Such a large discrepancy likely distorts the picture of energy use in the country and may lead to an under-emphasis by government and private sector actors in managing energy use in this important sector.

This guide offers practical advice to homeowners, builders and designers embarking on a retrofit of an existing home. It focuses on relatively simple adaptations to improve a home's comfort, while reducing energy bills and carbon emissions.It is a response to an increasing need to address carbon emissions from existing residential buildings. Historically, policy on reducing carbon emissions has focused on regulating new-build projects; however, with less than 2% of the building stock in Australia replaced each year, there is a clear need to reduce carbon emissions in homes that have already been built and occupied.The document builds on key research conducted nationally by individuals and organisations, including the Australian Government's Department of Environment and Energy and local universities, working in the areas of low carbon retrofit options, housing typology and climate.The practical nature of the information aims to appeal to a diverse readership, from people with little or no formal training or experience in construction and design to those who are qualified builders and architects. Importantly, the advice here covers only residential buildings, which include the National Construction Code building classes 1, 2 and 3. For commercial retrofits, please refer to the Guide to Low Carbon Commercial Buildings – Retrofit.Similarly, homeowners embarking on extensive refurbishments that significantly change the form or layout of their dwelling, or who are planning home extensions or a new construction, should refer to the Guide to Low Carbon Residential Buildings – New Build.Homeowners or those in rental properties who are seeking to avoid major retrofits while at the same time reduce their household energy use should refer to this guide's companion document, the Guide to Low Carbon Residential Buildings – Households.