An overview of infiltration and ventilation developments in France.

France is one of the European countries where ventilation has the most advanced regulation. Vertical ducts have been used for a very long time, making easier the transfer from passive to mechanical ventilation ( which covers now 90 % of the blocs of flats and 70 % of the individual housing) . 1969 regulation has been based on a continuous air exhaust from the service rooms and air replacement through inlets in the habitable rooms. This has never been changed since then and is a part of french regulation's features. The other main characteristic is to include the thermal loss due to ventilation in the calculation of the total loss of the housing. Since 1983, it is possible to install a system which modulates and distributes the ventilation flows according to the needs (measured from humidity level) in the different rooms. When you buy a house, you find heating, water supply, electricity supply. Good quality air supply, through a global ventilation system, must be provided as well. This is why a regulation is needed, with an obligation of result. Essential requirements have to be met in every house, every places; whatever the wheater, the occupancy may be, at the right energy cost.