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Residential ventilation and energy characteristics

Sherman, M. and Matson, M.S.

Sherman, M. and Matson, M.S."Residential ventilation and energy characteristics", .
Abstract:
The role of ventilation in the housing stock is to provide fresh air and to dilute internally-generated pollutants in order to assure adequate indoor air quality. Energy is required to provide this ventilation service, either directly for moving the air or indirectly for conditioning the outdoor air for thermal comfort. Different kinds of ventilation systems have different energy requirements. Existing dwellings in the United States are ventilated primarily through leaks in the building shell (i.e., infiltration) rather than by mechanical ventilation systems. The purpose of this report is to ascertain, from best available data, the energy liability associated with providing the current levels of ventilation and to estimate the energy savings or penalties associated with tightening or loosening the building envelope while still providing ventilation for adequate indoor air quality. Various ASHRAE Standards (e.g., 62, 119, and 136) are used to determine acceptable ventilation levels and energy requirements. Building characteristics, energy use, and building tightness data are combined to estimate both the energy liabilities of ventilation and its dependence on building stock characteristics. The average annual ventilation energy use for a typical dwelling is about 61 GJ (roughly 50% of total space conditioning energy usage); the cost-effective savings potential is about 38 GJ. The national cost savings potential, by tightening the houses to the ASHRAE Standard 119 levels while still providing adequate ventilation through infiltration or mechanical ventilation, is $2.4 Billion. The associated total

This link was checked on Dec. 2006Residential Ventilation & Energy
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Author Information and Other Publications Notes
Sherman, M.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta Edmonton, AB Canada
  1. A comparison of the power law to quadratic formulations for air infiltration calculations
  2. Air Infiltration Measurement Techniques
  3. Air-tightness of US. Dwellings
  4. ASHRAE'S First Residential Ventilation Standard
  5. ASHRAE'S Residential Ventilation Standard: Exegesis of Proposed Standard 62.2
  6. Building airtightness: research and practice
  7. Infiltration Degree-Days: A Statistic for Quantifying Infiltration-Related Climate
  8. Multizone age-of-air analysis
  9. On the estimation of multizone ventilation rates from tracer gas measurements
  10. Selecting Whole-House Ventilation Strategies To Meet Proposed Ashrae Standard 62.2: Energy Cost Considerations
  11. Tracer-gas techniques for measuring ventilation in a single zone
  12. Uncertainties in fan pressurization measurements
  13. Uncertainty in air flow calculations using tracer gas measurements  
Matson, M. S.
     


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