"Performance" project: Improvement of the ventilation and building air tightness performance in occupied dwellings in France

As we increase energy requirements on ventilation, it is essential to assess the real performance of these systems on site, both for energy savings and IAQ aspects.Applied on two new buildings located in Paris and near Lyon (France), "Performance" project has given the opportunity to check the feasibility of applying quality approach while building to improve performance and to measure precisely, during 2 years, in a large set of dwellings (29) the efficiency of the French standard ventilation system for new buildings (humidity controlled single exhaust mechanical ventilation).With numerous probes installed in all the rooms of the monitored dwellings, the monitoring has enabled to better understand the parameters which can influence the ventilation performance. The results have demonstrated the efficiency of the humidity controlled ventilation in managing the indoor air quality and its adaptation to occupancy by measurements of CO2 and humidity concentrations. Energy savings on the equivalent airflow for energy have been evaluated at 30% on the monitored over-occupied dwellings; the extrapolation to the average occupancy of the French building stock have shown to be between 50 and 55% energy savings.