Integrated energy efficient cooling solutions for large prefabricated panels collective dwellings from the 1970s

The intense urbanization process Romania has known during the industrialization period of the 1960-70s led to an exponential shortage in urban housing. Similar to other countries, but more specifically to the former Eastern block, Romanian state-financed collective dwellings were erected starting from standardized projects of Reinforced Concrete Large Prefabricated Panels (RCLPP) blocks of flats, generating nowadays a particular built stock of identical buildings and several apartment types, widespread throughout the entire country. These buildings currently house 60% of the urban population of Romania that own 96% of the apartments, as opposed to the European trends regarding the number of owner-occupied barely reaching 60%. Even though at not even half of their intended lifespan, the collective dwellings do not satisfy basic comfort conditions such as cooling and ventilation, being in an urge of retrofitting and upgrading. Individually applicable cooling systems undertaken by the owners have proved to be acceptable, but did not, however, contribute to a decrease in the overall energy consumption of the buildings. The present paper analyses the individual cooling systems being currently applied in Romanian apartments as opposed to a global-holistic system on block level, in terms of energy consumption and efficiency, flexibility of owner controlled indoor microclimate. The results show the potential of introducing renewable energy sources as viable alternatives for the existing systems

European overview of sustainable policies and approaches in COST C25 member countries

The implementation of the principles and methods towards a Sustainable Construction varies across different countries in Europe. In some countries, the sustainability of the construction sector has been effectively taken into consideration over the last years, while in other its implementation is at an initial stage. Many reasons may be pointed out for this situation. Different countries have different understandings of what is entailed in Sustainable Construction. Different cultural and educational backgrounds, along with different priorities in each country, are also contributing for the lack of a common European approach. General frameworks, aiming to cover every aspect of Sustainable Construction and to provide a consistent and integrated approach, such as Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction, gave a major advance in the search for a common approach for the construction sector. However, general agreed methodologies and tools to make this common approach operational are still missing.European Science Foundation - COST Action C2

Light induced molecular processes on ice

The thesis "Light-induced molecular processes on ice" deals with two main issues: first, the interaction of water with a platinum surface, under very well-defined conditions (at liquid nitrogen temperature in a very low-pressure environment (Ultra-High Vacuum: pressure 2 x 10-11 mbar)), and second, the photochemistry of small, naturally occurring, organic molecules such as bromoform (CHBr3) molecules on ice surfaces. The first topic is of relevance for electrochemistry, where water-metal interactions are crucial in determining the system's reactivity. The second topic is relevant for our understanding of processes encountered in the Earth's atmosphere. In particular, for atmospheric chemistry, the fundamental steps of the photochemical reaction of bromoform on ice surfaces induced by UV light, are elucidated. This reaction constitutes an important step in the ozone depletion cycle, which greatly affects our atmosphere. Photodissociation studies reveal a rich UV-induced photochemistry of bromoform on ice: various direct fragmentation pathways, as well as formation of new, ice-mediated C—C and C—O bond containing chemical species. Given the previously reported detection of bromoform in the stratosphere, these observations may have significant implications for current models describing stratospheric ozone depletion.UBL - phd migration 201

Mobility of haloforms on ice surfaces

We have investigated the mobility of bromoform (CHBr3) and chloroform (CHCl3) on amorphous solid water and crystalline ice surfaces, by monitoring their adsorption and desorption behavior using temperature programmed desorption spectroscopy and reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy. Up to its desorption temperature, of 140 K, CHCl3 does not diffuse over the crystalline ice surface, whereas CHBr3 is found to be mobile at temperatures as low as 85 K. The results demonstrate distinct differences between the surface mobility of structurally similar haloform molecules on crystalline ice surfaces, which may have implications to the halocarbon chemistry occurring on atmospheric ice particles

Adsorption and photochemistry of multilayer bromoform on ice

The adsorption and photochemistry of bromoform multilayers on and in amorphous solid water (ASW) are studied using reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and time-of-flight (TOF) techniques. Regardless of the initial exposure, bromoform. resides on top of the ASW layer. No migration of bromoform molecules into the ASW film is observed for adsorption on top of the water layer. UV irradiation at a wavelength of 266 nm results in significant desorption of photochemical fragments, reaction of photochemical products on the surface and light-induced molecular reorganization of the remaining CHBr3, which is apparent from a comparison of pre- and post-irradiation TPD experiments. The ice-mediated C-C (C2H2Br2) and C-O (CHBrO) photoproducts desorb from both the ASW surface and the Pt surface. The photoproduct C2H2Br4 is formed exclusively from multilayers of CHBr3 and desorbs only from the Pt surface. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved