This paper deals with the impact of using phase change materials (PCM) in light building constructions. It describes how these materials react during the whole year, how they impact the summer temperature stability of a room and how they react in the transtition period and in the heating period. Measuring was carried out in the experimental and reference room in the attic of the Institute of Building Structures. The layout of these identical rooms enables to compare the measured values. The measuring of the indoor climate which had been carried out during the whole year in the reference and experimental room was analysed. The analysis was used to create the basic methodological procedure for using PCM in light building constructions. These materials proved to be efficient in the summer time. During the heating period the power consumption was monitored in relation to the application of the phase change materials.

Today, besides standard insulation products reflective thermal insulations can be purchased on the market. This may for example be a combination of closed air layers with several layers of metallized foil. Dealers of reflective insulation often claim that the thermal conductivity of reflective insulation reaches values lower than 0,01 W/(m‧K). One dealer introduces this fact to consumers in another form: three centimeters of reflective insulation are equal to twenty centimeters of mineral wool. However, are such properties physically possible?

Currently the thermography is commonly used for diagnosis of the building envelope quality. Major purpose is the control of construction details, thermal bridge analysis. Thermography can be used for determining the heat transfer coefficient of the building envelope. Though this method of determining heat transfer coefficient is limited and results may not always be exact. It can be caused by variability of boundary conditions and inhomogeneity of building structure. This article describes the methodology for determination of heat transfer coefficient based on thermographic measuring.

Temperature effects on soil are unexplored and calculations are simplified. This paper deals with the impact of using different soil properties for numerical determination linear thermal transmittance of building foundations. It describes how the numerical calculation react on these soil properties. The analysis was made for real details of foundations and was used to create simple chart for the idea about calculation sensitivity.

The use of straw bales as insulation and in some low-rise buildings as elements for substructure are currently namely on the edge of building technologies but it is also technology that have potential in certain contexts to a wider application. It is shown by the implementation of experimental structures and research results.

Two roof structures made of timber trusses collapsed during the winter in 2005. Employees of the Department of Steel and Timber Structures at SUT in Bratislava performed a detailed diagnostic inspections of 16 sites roofed by mentioned type of timber trusses in Slovakia.

Sloping roofs have been being built for centuries. Until recently, these roofs had only one purpose - to protect the building from rainwater, snow or other climatic influences. Let's look more closely at the current issue of excessive moisture in the roofs and let's show with pictures some specific examples.

Thermal insulation of prefabricated panel buildings is shifting to residential houses built on a brick in at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. These houses usually have an unheated basement with brick arches or wooden beam ceiling. Insulation of envelope and leaving the original heating system leads to a change in the internal climate and causing secondary faults.

Current and future use of rainwater in urban and rural areas with a dense network of residential and industrial buildings, including paved surfaces, can be transformed from the standard of environmentally and economically non-viable leads into sewers or waterways to capture this source of water through infiltration to the soil of the specific hydrogeological site.

The author tries to point out that, when hearing of CSN 73 1901 Designing roofs - Basic provisions it was underestimated the introduction of new terms and definitions also impact on other standards. There were almost unsolvable problems in developing those standards that have not yet been completed or processed. The standard should be corrected very soon, the author means.

The article deals with substandard structures structures. Assessment is complemented by practical examples and explanations of operational implications especially with regard to the durability of structures. These proposals should be applied as part of fire safety design of buildings.

Despite the fact that since the abolition of the "old" technical standards for determining loads and dimension of structural elements and structures already passed almost two years, still a part of our professional community doesn’t know all the impact of the introduction of Eurocodes in the field of mechanically anchored flexible roof waterproofing layers. More knowledgeable construction supervisors and also the insurance companies refuse to accept or insure mechanically anchored roof layers that are not properly constructed - including demonstrably and properly anchored.

A survey of cellular concrete facades of residential buildings in the Slovak Republic, executed between 2010 and 2011, showed extensive cracks. These can be a problem for safe anchoring of ETICS to the existing facade. Crack is a discontinuity in the mass, the pull-out tests results show that near the crack can be regarded as a weak area with a lower load capacity of anchors. This paper informs about the tests results in situ and the preliminary results of laboratory tests.

The paper describes existing databases of environmental data of building products with focus on Czech tool Envimat.cz. It is an online tool, which provides environmental indicators of building materials with main purpose of providing a unified, transparent and reliable system that allows user to compare different products and structures; motivate the producers to fill in data sets of their products and improve their technologies; convince architects and designers to care about different sustainability profiles of materials; give advantage to products that have lower environmental impacts being at the same technical level than the competitor. The implementation of Envimat is divided into the three main phases: start-up phase (data from the generic database); transitional phase (combination of generic and localized data); regular operation with fully localized data.

The decision to additional thermal insulation of facade begins with a question "what's million-dollar investment will bring us". Many of the available information we find say that it will bring about 50% savings in heating. The heat meter, installed at the inlet of connecting pipe to the heating system should therefore show the half consumption of heat than before, but usually the results are very different - in both directions.

This paper deals with the development of measurement of the building envelope airtight in the Czech Republic. Specifies the initial criteria and mistakes that were made. Addresses in detail the current state of measuring air tightness and provides some interesting insights from practice. The paper was presented at a conference Passive Houses 2011.

Thermal stability of rooms without air-conditioning depends mainly on the thermal energy storage capacity of envelope and possible heat gains. Sensible heat storage structures, e.g. brickwork, concrete walls and slabs, usually do not have sufficient thermal storage capacity and some additional thermal storage mass is needed for cold storage. Passive cooling with thermal storage in phase change materials (PCMs) is a very effective way to improve thermal stability of the rooms with light-weight envelope. The main advantage of the phase change materials storage in buildings is the possibility to store a huge amount of heat in a rather narrow temperature interval. Passive cooling based on the latent heat storage technology can contribute to the energy and operative cost savings during summer season. The efficiency of this kind of passive cooling significantly depends on the heat transfer rates between the ambient environment and the thermal storage material. Modern administrative buildings or wooden buildings are often made of light-weight materials with rather small thermal mass. The latent heat cold storage in the phase change materials seems to be quite promising in this respect since it offers high thermal storage capacity.

As the cheapest and least problematic solution of thermal insulation for most buildings is the external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS). It is composed of the adhesive, as well as thermal insulation, mostly in the CR mineral wool or expanded or extruded polystyrene. These types of thermal insulation are usually anchored by plugs and all these parts are covered by the adhesive layer with reinforced fabric and the final render. For this system has recently been shown that the points of the plugs are problematic.

Design of roof drainage vacuum system is based on the principle of hydraulic fluid flow. If you comply with all the basic rules, and set boundary conditions, it is expected that the proposed system will work. Given that the design of vacuum system is very difficult, even technically, designers often use direct supplier systems.

The city of Olomouc is the owner of an interesting low-energy building for education center Sluňákov with a focus on developing the relationship between man and nature. Construction was awarded the Grand Prix of architects in 2007.