Checking the compliance of residential ventilation systems in France

This paper addresses the issue of the compliance of residential ventilation systems with building regulations. Because the French building code includes requirements on performance as well as on means, the approach adopted by the French government consists in checking both airflow rates and functional measures. This paper gives an overview of the methods used and analyses the results of tests performed on 260 building projects (multi-family buildings and grouped individual houses). Non-conformities are divided into major 8 categories, 4 regarding the type of equipment used, and 4 regarding the measured airflow rates. The non-compliance ranges between 4% and 39%. While the supply of industrial products is well adapted to the requirements, lack of care and coordination at the design, installation, and commissioning phases leads to poor results. Quality management could certainly help improve this situation.