ventilation

Since many years, several monitoring studies have shown that the quality and compliance of installed ventilation systems can be low. The recently developed Evaluation scheme in Belgium tries to tackle this problem, thanks to the mandatory Ventilation Performance Report of all new ventilation installations, to be delivered by a Ventilation Reporter recognised by a Third-Party control organisation. This factsheet describes the approach of this scheme, including the penalty scheme and the role of the actors involved.

Welcome to the 'Blue Pages'. This is where the Editorial Advisory Panel for Building Services Engineering Research and Technology publishes state-of-the-art articles on developments in building services engineering practice and research. The articles are very short, on one theme of current interest, and are edited by a guest editor rather than going through the longer refereeing process for conventional research papers. This is to encourage consultants and contractors to discuss their latest developments in a non-commercial manner.

Diffuse ceiling ventilation uses perforations in the suspended ceiling to deliver air into the occupied zone. Due to the complex geometry of the diffuser, it is not possible to build an exact geometrical model in CFD simulation. Two numerical models are proposed in this study, one is a simplified geometrical model and the other is a porous media model. The numerical models are validated by the full-scale experimental studies in a climate chamber.

In 2011, the Danish Energy Agency initiated a study into ventilation solutions for the retrofit of schools to identify the most promising technologies. The reason was an increasing awareness that the ability of school children to absorb, adapt and use knowledge was affected negatively by inadequate ventilation rates. This paper presents an output of this study. A method for evaluation of the ventilation systems is proposed. The method consists of three categories with a clear separation to create a scoring board that facilitates transparent and unbiased evaluation.

Ventilation’s historical goal has been to ensure sufficient air change rates in buildings from a hygienic point of view. Regarding its potential impact on energy consumption, ventilation is being reconsidered today. An important challenge for low energy buildings lies in the need to master airflows through the building envelope. Data collected from controls in 1287 recent dwellings shows us that 68 % of the dwellings don't respect the French airing regulation.

Controlling indoor humidity is important in homes, because high indoor humidity is associated with occupant health and building durability issues. Ventilation is often used to avoid peaks of moisture in homes, such as in kitchens and bathrooms. However, in hot-humid climates, outdoor air can have higher humidity than indoors, and continuous whole house ventilation can lead to increases in indoor humidity levels.

Indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have played a role in discussions of ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) since the 18th century. Those discussions have evolved over the years to focus on the impacts of CO2 concentrations on building occupants, how these concentrations relate to occupant perception of bioeffluents, the use of indoor CO2 concentrations to estimate ventilation rates, and CO2–based demand control ventilation. This paper reviews how indoor CO2 has been dealt with in ventilation and IAQ standards in the context of these issues.

This paper presents a comparison of Indoor Air Quality in several buildings constructed prior to the implementation of the new Spanish regulation on thermal installations (RITE, 2007 modified on 2013) and some new ones that fully accomplish the requirements of this new regulation.

Choosing the right baseline level of ventilation has a big impact in the calculated energy needs of buildings.