Testing a method for checking the performance of ventilation systems in commercial buildings in France.

Ventilation performances in existing buildings are not well known, in France. They are not often checked. This paper shows how a method for checking the performance of ventilation could be applied in France. Such a method, mainly based on visual inspections and simple measurements has already been used for years in Sweden. The Swedish method has been tested in France, in collaboration with a Swedish inspector, on different commercial buildings of different sizes and ages : two secondary schools, one primary school, one office building, one hotel and one bar. The present paper is mainly oriented on the feasibility of the method : description of the checks, instrumentation to use, time for inspections, report. Only few results are given, as examples. Another paper will show the whole results on the different buildings, and will describe the ventilation defaults which were observed during these investigations. Finally , the prospects for future applications of such method in France are discussed.