The requirements to a desired level of thermal protection of outer walls of buildings have been analysed. The relation between such requirements and social factors of a country was shown. Comparison data regarding heat releasing surface area of outer walls and windows and heat losses per person have been received for variable residential density of apartments. The authors have shown international practices and the needs for transition to construction of buildings with a higher level of thermal protection of outer walls. Since cold generation is 3-5 times as expensive as heat generation for many buildings, the transition was made from ventilation of the naturally driven type to controlled and mechanical one providing heat recovery of exhaust air. It was suggested that problem of energy-saving in the sector of construction and housing and communal services could be solved providing a desired life of outer walls and costs of current and major repairs required for projected lifetime of a building.

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The paper presents the results of an ellipsometric study of compacted powders of aluminum-based binary alloys containing 1,5 wt.% of rare earth elements (Sc, La, Ce, Sm) and cast aluminum-silicon alloys with the following compositions: Al–10Si–0,5Mg– 0,3Fe–0,1Ca and Al–12Si–0,6Mg–0,5Fe–0,5Ca–0,45Na. An immersion method was used to determine the optical constants of massive polycrystalline alloys obtained by remelting these powders in vacuum, as well as their oxide films for a wavelength λ = 0,6328 μm. Using the optical constants of these alloys, the dependence of their reflectivity on the surface oxide film thickness was calculated. It was found that an increase in the amount of the alloying component and intermetallic phases in the alloy decreases its reflectivity. In addition, the optical constants were used in the construction of modified Δ–ψ nomograms calculated using the Maxwell-Garnett equation that make it possible to determine the thicknesses of oxide films on particles and the volume fractions of metal in compacted powders, and to study the processes of their oxidation in air. It was shown that oxidation of aluminum ASD-4 powders and Al–1,5% REM binary alloys at 600 °C is described by a simple model where a decrease in the metal fraction leads to an increase in the oxide film thickness. It turned out that the oxidation of aluminum-silicon alloys is much faster and not described by this model, which may be due to the appearance of a liquid phase in the powder. A large number of metal droplets on the surface of particles increase the amount of metal on the studied tablet surface in general. The high oxidation rate of aluminumsilicon alloys in air can be explained by the surface activity of magnesium in relation to liquid aluminum.