The purpose of this study was to measure the concentration of cooking-generated particles and to assess the health risk of the occupants. Numerous particulates are released from the kitchen when people are cooking, and diffused to other spaces in house, which would adverse the health of occupants. Sufficient ventilation is needed to decrease the PM2.5 concentration. To analyze the PM2.5 concentration, field measurements were performed on a cooking condition. A case study was performed based on the ventilation type including natural and mechanical ventilation. Three cases were designed: single-sided natural ventilation, cross-ventilation, and mechanical ventilation. The PM2.5 concentration was measured for 30 min, with a cooking time of 16 min. According to the analysis, the PM2.5 concentration increased 3.8 times more than the 24 h standard (50 µg/m³). The PM2.5 concentration in the living room was slightly greater than that in the kitchen. The particulate matter also rapidly diffused to other spaces. Moreover, the health risk increased by up to 30.8% more than in the base scenario. Therefore, additional ventilation strategies are needed to alleviate the diffusion of cooking particles.

This study describes the environmental impact of the material production, transportation, and construction phases from the construction site perspective. CO₂ emissions for each process were determined using the Korea Life Cycle Inventory Database (LCI DB) in the material production phase, and the actual amounts of oil consumption for transportation equipment were identified in the material transportation phase. Generally, the oil and electric energy consumed during the construction was evaluated by direct monitoring. Through the construction period and cost according to work type, a correlation with CO₂ emissions was also investigated. In addition, CO₂ emissions were examined through the system capacity and gross floor area for each work type. The calculations have shown that CO₂ emissions from the material production phase constitute 93.4% of the total CO₂ emissions. In addition, CO₂ emissions from the material transportation and on-site construction account for 2.4% and 4.2% of the total CO₂ emissions, respectively. This paper concludes that it is important to select appropriate input materials and resources for the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, the amount of CO₂ emissions arising from the construction site was reduced by finding and practicing measures to reduce CO₂ emissions for each process.

In Kuwait, where the government subsidizes approximately 95% of residential electricity bills, most of the country’s energy consumption is for residential use. In particular, air-conditioning (AC) systems for cooling, which are used throughout the year, are responsible for residential electric energy consumption. This study aimed to reduce the amount of energy consumed for cooling purposes by developing a thermal comfort-based controller. Our study commenced by using a simulation model to investigate the possibility of energy reduction when using the predicted mean vote (PMV) for optimal control. The result showed that control optimization would enable the cooling energy consumption to be reduced by 33.5%. The influence of six variables on cooling energy consumption was then analyzed to develop a thermal comfort-based controller. The analysis results showed that the indoor air temperature was the most influential factor, followed by the mean radiant temperature, the metabolic rate, and indoor air velocity. The thermal comfort-based controller-version 1 (TCC-V1) was developed based on the analysis results and experimentally evaluated to determine the extent to which the use of the controller would affect the energy consumed for cooling. The experiments showed that the implementation of TCC-V1 control made it possible to reduce the electric energy consumption by 39.5% on a summer representative day. The results of this study indicate that it is possible to improve indoor thermal comfort while saving energy by using the thermal comfort-based controller in residential buildings in Kuwait.