Indoor environmental quality, energy effciency and thermal comfort in the retroftting of housing: A literature review

Marco A. Ortiz, P.M. Bluyssen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeChapterScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Building retrofitted to be resilient in the face of future climates may present risks for the health and comfort of the occupants, due to the indoor environmental quality changes involved under current building practices. This chapter is a literature review of recent peer-reviewed papers from a variety of fields identifying such potential hazards. Three topics are investigated: building envelope, HVAC systems and occupants. In terms of the building envelope, resilient buildings currently lead to more airtightness and thermal insulation, which can create humidity problems, accumulation of air pollutants or overheating. HVAC systems, however efficient, can jeopardize the indoor environmental quality, through ducts, filters, noise and maintenance. Respiratory system, eyes and skin conditions can arise with certain retrofitting measures. Moreover, such measures do not necessarily lead to energy savings, partly due to the occupants and their behaviours and partly due to the technologies and their feedback. Human factors should be combined into the development of retrofitting technologies. Thus, interdisciplinarity is needed to develop resilient buildings that will be energy-efficient and also healthy and comfortable for their occupants and the technologies need to be researched as interdependent components to be synthesized in their performance to result in a single enhanced goal.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRoutledge Handbook of Resilient Thermal Comfort
EditorsFergus Nicol, Hom Bahadur Rija, Susan Roaf
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge - Taylor & Francis Group
Chapter26
Pages433-445
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9781003244929
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

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Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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