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The building envelope includes all materials (glazing, external walls, doors, etc.) that separate the conditioned space from the outside environment. Building envelope characteristics significantly influence the energy consumption of buildings. In this study, research was carried out to find optimum building envelope design parameters, such as insulation thickness, orientation, glazing type, and the window-to-wall ratio of a room, using actual climatic data of two cities with different characteristics according to the Köppen climatic classification. The insulation thickness and the window type that minimizes the net present worth of the building façade over 20 years of a lifetime gave the optimum values. In addition, the effect of the various parameters, such as the infiltration rate through the envelope, room set-point temperature, and the fuel type, on the net present cost was also analyzed. It was found that appropriate selection of windows, orientation, and insulation thickness would lead to a significant reduction in the annual energy consumption. Despite having the lowest initial investment cost, the room with single glazed windows had the highest energy requirement and the net present cost. The building façade with double glazed windows, oriented towards the south-west, yielded the minimum net present cost in both locations. Results showed that the optimum external wall thickness is 9 cm in Hakkari (Dsa—Continental Climate) and 6 cm in Istanbul (Csa—Mild Climate).

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A healthy and comfortable indoor environment is the most basic requirement of human beings. The importance of indoor air quality has been increasing day to day. Although ventilation systems have an essential role in improving indoor air quality, it is inevitable to clean the particulates, microorganisms and pollutant gases in the outside fresh air before being transferred to the indoor environment. Electrostatic precipitators are commonly used for collecting particles mostly in industrial plants. This paper presents a review of electrostatic filtration technology. In this study, theoretical and technical developments of electrostatic precipitators, design parameters that effect filtering performance, advantages, challenges, and limitations are discussed.

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