Pinpoint facts from building physics on sustainable construction

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Building physics in a nutshell

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Today, "sustainable construction" means the planning and construction of buildings that offer users a very high level of comfort and durability and require only minimal energy input for operation. This requires: high thermal comfort, a good supply of daylight, good noise protection against both external and internal noise sources, good room acoustics, the avoidance of any condensation and mould fungus problems, such a low energy requirement that particularly gentle and efficient methods can be used to cover the remaining requirement. At first glance, it seems difficult to meet all these requirements. Both the various textbooks of building physics and building services as well as the multitude of EN and SIA standards that have been developed in the meantime seem confusing rather than useful for practitioners.
This handbook takes a different approach: it presents the most important relationships for all essential aspects of sustainable building in a concise and clear form, makes them feasible with the help of recipes, graphic and tabular aids, illustrates them with examples and supplements them with practical tips. "PINPOINT" (i.e. "exactly, precisely") sums up the basics of building physics and enables practitioners to apply their knowledge efficiently and concentrated on the essentials. Complementary software tools: In addition to the book "PINPOINT", a number of software tools such as the Energy Design Guide I (EDG I) and the Energy Design Guide II (EDG II) are available at www.pinpoint-online.ch as freeware.