Buildings are major consumers of energy for heating and cooling. The number of buildings is growing rapidly with demand for energy. To reduce consumption, governments worldwide have implemented codes, standards, and building practices. In New South Wales, Australia the planning department introduced a web-based energy-modelling tool intended to increase the thermal performance of the residential...

Rainfall is seldom addressed in the analysis of climates for building design, usually neglected for building thermal performance calculations, and there is very little research about its potential cooling effect.

This paper provides a snapshot of future HVAC in a net-zero world, and outlines some of the mainthemes from the workshop discussions such as:

Heat intolerance is a major medical problem affecting people with multiple sclerosis (MS). When their core body temperatures increase people with MS experience significantly increased symptoms which greatly reduces their capacity to participate in social, household and work activities, as well as increasing their need for pharmaceuticals and medical services. For people with MS, using...

With this Communication, released in February 2016, the European Commission presents the first strategy to optimise buildings' and industries' heating and cooling in order to tackle the massive use of energy, particularly fossil fuels, in the sector. Heating and cooling accounts for 50% of the energy consumption in the European Union, and renewables account for...