Describes air sealing of existing homes by sealants, weatherstripping, air-vapour barriers, and other techniques. Discusses principles of air exchange, moisture movement, air sealing, control of indoor air quality, and combustion air. Identifies procedures for assessing air sealing measures in individual houses. Describes materials for air sealing and their applications.
Three blocks of flats on the outskirts of Worms were equipped with a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery, a mechanical ventilation system, and stack assisted natural ventilation, respectively. Building description, air quality, air change rate, draught protection, noise level, energy balance, individual heating costs, efficiency calculations, planning and installation experience and user behaviour were studied. Systems with heat recovery were found to permit a 15-20 per cent reduction of heat consumption. User behaviour in opening windows is dependent on habit.
Reports on use of supply and exhaust ventilation with heat recovery in prefabricated houses and multi-storey buildings. In thermal super insulated buildings the system can supply heat demand down to an outside temperature of5 degrees C: additional electric storage heating is used below thistemperature. The ventilation system operates at an air change rate of approximately 0.7 per hour in the following way: exhaust air from the kitchen, bathroom, and WC, supply air to the living and bedrooms. It is combined with an air to air heat pump.
A steady state multi-cell calculation model has been developed in order to predict the interconnection between airtightness and ventilation rates. The model has been tested with measured leakage data of a detached house.
The determination of an acceptable range of humidity is complicated by the conflicting effects of an increase or decrease in humidity levels on the speed of chemical interactions and growth of biological organisms and pathogens that may affect human health and comfort.
An automated 10-point air sampling network which uses an electron capture detector gas chromatograph to continuously measure changes in sulfur hexafluoride tracer concentration in a residential environment will be described. The injection of the tracer is controlled by a microprocessor which decides to inject sulfur hexafluoride tracer to return its concentration to a preprogrammed set point. Infiltration rates from fan induced pressurization will be compared to the infiltration rates as reported from the replacement of sulfur hexafluoride tracer.
For optimum building design it is of importance to investigate the comfort and the energy conservation obtained with different types of ventilation systems and levels of airtightness of buildings. This could be achieved by aid of computer models based on full-scale and model measurements. In order to obtain experimental data as input data to such a computer model, an experimental, detached one-family house has been built near to Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast.
The heat losses from small houses, due to transmission and ventilation, are estimated. The estimation i s based up on the house owness daily readings of electricity and water meters, and their notes on behaviour influencing the energy use. Consideration is taken to heat supply from insolation and from people. Hot water losses are calculated from use of water and use of household machinery. Besides the estimation of the heat losses, Q, wind and temperature in the area is registrated .
Discusses the problems of designing ventilation for small houses. Small houses are considered to be far too elementary and there is no total view of the balance of energy and no regard for the interplay between different flows. Mechanical ventilation is often not controlled or inspected in small houses. Recommendations are: increased knowledge, differentiated requirements on ventilation, inspection of systems, definition of comfort criteria, changed conditions for heat recovery, and well-documented requirements for air tightness.
The total energy consumption for five detached houses with air change rates of around 3 per hour right after construction, was measured and compared with estimated values, over a three-year period. Air change in the bedrooms was also measured. It was found that the recommended value was only obtained in very tight houses. If two windows are open, the ventilation system is partly short-circuited. A modified exhaust air ventilation system was designed to provide a sufficient air change in the bedroom with a reduced total air changein the house as a whole.