ventilation

The airtightness of 36 houses built since 1995 and across four cities in New Zealand (NZ) was measured. In a subset of 31 of these homes, the average ventilation rate was measured over several weeks in the winter using a perfluorocarbon tracer technique (PFT). These results can be added to earlier airtightness data to provide a platform for improving the air quality and energy efficiency of residential ventilation in NZ.

Indoor environment quality in buildings strongly depends on the proper ventilation. Still a large amount of single- and multifamily buildings are equipped with the natural ventilation system.
When the air exchange in the building is estimated, the main uncertainty concerns the air tightness of the given object. This parameter is used as the input data when the ventilation air flows in building are simulated, and therefore a reliable determination of the air tightness is essential.

An emerging issue in Denmark is passive smoking in residential buildings where non-smokers are exposed to harmful smoke from their neighbours. There are various ways that smoke infiltrates from one flat to another. The air infiltration rate between two flats in a multi-storey building depends on its construction, tightness and age.

It is widely accepted that ventilation is critical for providing good indoor air quality (IAQ) in homes. However, the definition of "good" IAQ, and the most effective, energy efficient methods for delivering it are still matters of research and debate. This paper presents the results of work done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to identify the air pollutants that drive the need for ventilation as part of a larger effort to develop a health-based ventilation standard.

The EPBD (EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) Concerted Action is a cooperative effort from all 27 EU Member States (MS), plus Norway and Croatia, together with the European Commission. It is running since 2004, under the Intelligent Energy programme since 2007. It aims at providing support to MS in their effort to transpose and then implement the EPBD, identifying the best solutions and practices that MS can then adopt and thus move towards harmonization throughout the EU.

Today an acceptable indoor air quality is mainly defined by specifying the required level of ventilation in air changes per hour or the outside air supply rate. This would be equivalent to defining the requirements for thermal comfort by specifying the level of heating or cooling in Watts. The increasing societal need for energy efficiency will often result in very tight buildings. This means that the amount of outside air supplied by infiltration is not enough to provide the required ventilation.

A retrofit study was conducted in an unoccupied manufactured house to investigate the impacts of airtightening on ventilation rates and energy consumption. This report describes the retrofits and the results of the pre- and post-retrofit assessment of building airtightness, ventilation, and energy use. Building envelope and air distribution systems airtightness were measured using fan pressurization. Air change rates were measured continuously using the tracer gas decay technique.

Accidental releases occurring in industrial platforms or during transportation of hazardous materials can entail the dispersion of toxic gas clouds. In case of such an event, the best protection strategy for people is to identify a shelter in a nearby building and stay in this room until the toxic cloud has finally been swept off.

This paper focuses on ventilation solutions of a net zero energy building. We present the monitoring results after two years as part of the PHD programme research “Design, simulation and control of hybrid ventilation systems in high energy performances buildings” founded by Elithis Groupe in parternship with the LEPTIAB of La Rochelle.

At the end of 2010, two manufacturers have commissioned an independent engineering firm to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of air-tightness in ventilation. The study report uncovers the clear return of investment in class C air-tight ventilation systems in Belgium.
The study comprises: