The goal of this study was the determination of the existing situation in houses with regard to air quality and energy used for ventilation in relation to the health of inhabitants. For the energy policy the Government is considering increased energy requirements for dwellings. They are permanently opposed in doing so by people who are concerned about negative health effect due to increased requirements on for instance air tightness of buildings. To have at least a reference point, they are interested in the existing situation.
The thermal performance of a monozone building located in Lisbon is studied when night ventilation combined with radiative cooling is used in order to remove the heat from indoors. For simulating the thermal behaviour of the building, a commercial energy building software is used. The potential for radiative cooling in Lisbon, as well as the efficiency of the radiative cooling system were investigated previously. A validated numerical model is used in order to predict the temperature of the air at the outlet of the radiative system.
A concept is investigated for the energy efficient control of residential mechanical ventilation in response to outdoor air temperature and the corresponding stack-driven infiltration. The control concept takes advantage of the natural air leakage characteristics of a house and the ability of temperature-driven stack infiltration to provide ventilation air to the house. As the outdoor to indoor temperature difference increases and natural infiltration increases, the fan operation is reduced, thereby minimizing over-ventilation.
There is research acknowledging that the home environment may be responsible for worsening respiratory conditions, especially for children. The indoor environment is a substantial source of exposure to pollutants e.g. environmental tobacco smoke. Apart from conducting specialised, costly and complex studies a method was needed to understand and assess indoor environments in the UK and how people could be encouraged to improve their indoor environment.
In France, most of the public project managers have collective dwellings built in the 70’s 80’s with first generation mechanical ventilation systems. These systems are not well perceived by the occupants who find them noisy, uncomfortable in winter and w
In order to facilitate nationwide analysis of ventilation and indoor air quality issues in residential buildings, a set of homes has been defined to represent the housing stock of the United States. This so-called 'suite of homes' is based on two residential housing surveys, the U.S. Department of Energy Residential Energy Consumptions Survey (RECS) and the U.S. Census Bureau American Housing Survey (AHS). The RECS dataset includes about 6000 U.S. residences and the AHS covers about 60000, and are both intended to periodically characterize the U.S. housing stock.
The study reviewed each Code/Standard with respect to requirements relating to acommon set of ventilation factors and criteria. The main factors include the following:1. Protection against Depressurization - given the increase in more tightly built homes,how do the differing C/S protect against combustion gas spillage into the dwelling.2. Ventilation Capacity - what are the requirements for total mechanical air changerates, and high and low airflow capacities?3. Contaminant Removal - what exhaust requirements are there for specific rooms inthe dwelling?4.
In highly insulated residential buildings, complying with the Passive House Standard, the space heat demand can be covered by air heating at air flow rates given by air quality requirements, without the need for additional air re-circulation or for a water heating system. The air distribution system is kept compact. In a common concept the supply air terminal is located above the door to the corridor. Such configurations were evaluated for typical air transfer devices and extreme supply temperatures.
The Norwegian Building Research Institute (NBI) has completed a study of the performance of balanced residential ventilation systems with heat recovery (HRVs) in Norway. The study involved both a national questionnaire survey and thorough laboratory tests of 10 HRVs on the market. The overall conclusion is that balanced ventilation with heat recovery provides very good air quality, and has a payback time of 4~6 years for the most profitable systems despite Norways cheap hydropower (0.09 /kWh in 2002).
The aim of that study is to establish the relationship between symptoms and report of building dampness and odors.A questionnaire was then sent to the inhabitants of 231 multi-family buildings of Stockholm, containing more than 4800 dwellings, with questions about : personal factors, symptoms, population density in the apartment, water leakage, odors, and signs of high indoor air humidity.A combination of odor and high humidities was linked to high occurrence of the symptoms : humidity in building is therefore associated to Sick building Syndrome.
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