Hybrid ventilation of Canadian non domestic buildings: a procedure for assessing IAQ, comfort and energy conservation.

Environmental and economic concerns linked to conventional heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HY AC) have sparked a renewed interest in natural ventilation, passive cooling and other low energy microclimate control strategies for buildings. In Canada, the combination of extreme weather conditions, wind variability, transient occupancy patterns and high internal heat gains may hinder the feasibility of implementing natural ventilation as an exclusive means of ventilating non-domestic buildings. This paper discusses the advantages of hybrid ventilation strategies in Canadian nondomestic buildings, as an alternative to the exclusive application of either natural ventilation or HVAC systems. This paper also presents a procedure for assessing hybrid ventilation efficiency and energy conservation, using commercially-available multizone airflow and thermal/energy models.