residential building

ADEME (French Agency for Environment and Energy Management) regularly commissionssurveys of the attitudes and behaviour of private citizens with regard to energy, andperiodically it also commissions more detailed surveys relating to a particular appliance.The purpose of the survey is to take stock of changing attitudes in households with regard totheir use of energy and to assess the impact of ADEME's policies relating to the home.The questionnaire covers the following aspects: description of the work carried out during theyear surveyed, tax allowances and/or grants applicable to certain ki

A field measurement study of the airtightness of 73 - less than 5 year old - French dwellingswas led between 1999 and 2000. Buildings have been selected and classified according to theconstruction structure, the thermal insulation and the occupancy mode. Using a fandepressurizationtechnique, we assessed the air leakage rate of each dwelling with twodepressurization tests. Meanwhile quantifying air leakage rates, we observed qualitatively themost frequent locations of air leakage paths using a smoke detection method and infraredthermography.

This paper presents a recent field measurement study undertaken in 1999 on 73 recent Frenchdwellings. The study presented the opportunity to assess the conformity and the performancesof the dwelling ventilation systems and to assess the impact of infiltration on airchange rates.The following aspects were analyzed : (1) the type of ventilation facilities in the dwellings ;(2) the defaults in the installed systems and in their operation ; and (3) the measured air flowrates, as compared to the French standard required levels.

There has been a growing interest in the use of natural ventilation in buildings to supplement orreplace mechanical air supply systems. However, for buildings in busy urban areas the potentialto use natural ventilation can be limited by excessive noise entering through natural ventilationopenings such as windows and trickle ventilators. Such openings tend to have large open areasto enhance air flow while offering a very low resistance to the transmission of external urbannoise.

In 1998 the Dutch ventilation industry launched a new generation of domestic ventilation systems on the market with high efficiency heat recovery applying counter flow heat exchangers and DC fans. It is expected that these ventilation systems will play an important role in realising the goals of the Dutch national energy policy for reducing energy use in the built environment. Another important aspect is the contribution to a healthy indoor environment in dwellings with an extreme high energy efficiency, especially in relation to increasing air tightness and thermal insulation.

Ventilation needs in dwellings must be determined on the basis of both requirements to theindoor air quality and necessary control of moisture conditions. As a first step towardsdevelopment of energy efficient ventilation strategies for demand controlled ventilation infuture dwellings theoretical analyses comprising a literature study and mathematicalsimulations have been carried out.

In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a variety of mixing models is used to evaluate the indoor air quality in a small single-family house. CO2, CO, NO2, formaldehyde (HCHO), and vapor are tracked throughout the house to determine the concentration levels, occupational dosing, and personal exposure for a family of two adults and two children. Variations in metabolic activity, smoking, gas stove cooking, and showering make exposure very dependent on the individual's location in the house due to pollutant migration.

This paper presents the results of ventilation measurements taken in a non-occupied one-storey dwelling situated in the countryside. The measurements of the ventilation rates in the different rooms have been obtained by the use of tracer gases with the constant concentration technique. Four configurations of ventilation systems have been tested successively. The ventilation systems tested consist of natural air supply and mechanical exhaust. Both 'normal' air supply grilles and self-regulating grilles have been tested.

In France, the regulation on residential building ventilation is based, since 1969, on a generaland continuous air renewal ; the fresh air comes into habitable rooms by air inlets and thestale air is drawn out to exhaust vents in the service rooms. So the air inters the habitablerooms crosses through the dwelling, is extracted in the service rooms.The Research and Development Division of Gaz de France and the CSTB have studied theneeds in each room of a dwelling (depending on the size and the occupancy) to perform newventilation system(s).