Ventilation (architecture)

Ventilating (the V in HVAC) is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality (i.e. to control temperature, replenish oxygen, or remove moisture, odors, smoke, heat, dust, airborne bacteria, and carbon dioxide). Ventilation is used to remove unpleasant smells and excessive moisture, introduce outside air, to keep interior building air circulating, and to prevent stagnation of the interior air.

Ventilation includes both the exchange of air to the outside as well as circulation of air within the building. It is one of the most important factors for maintaining acceptable indoor air quality in buildings. Methods for ventilating a building may be divided into mechanical/forced and natural types.

"Mechanical" or "forced" ventilation is used to control indoor air quality. Excess humidity, odors, and contaminants can often be controlled via dilution or replacement with outside air. However, in humid climates much energy is required to remove excess moisture from ventilation air.

Ventilation increases the energy needed for heating or cooling, however heat recovery ventilation can be used to mitigate the energy consumption. This involves heat exchange between incoming and outgoing air. Energy recovery ventilation additionally includes exchange of humidity.

Kitchens and bathrooms typically have mechanical exhaust to control odors and sometimes humidity. Kitchens have additional problems to deal with such as smoke and grease (see kitchen ventilation). Factors in the design of such systems include the flow rate (which is a function of the fan speed and exhaust vent size) and noise level. If ducting for the fans traverse unheated space (e.g., an attic), the ducting should be insulated as well to prevent condensation on the ducting. Direct drive fans are available for many applications, and can reduce maintenance needs.

Ceiling fans and table/floor fans circulate air within a room for the purpose of reducing the perceived temperature because of evaporation of perspiration on the skin of the occupants. Because hot air rises, ceiling fans may be used to keep a room warmer in the winter by circulating the warm stratified air from the ceiling to the floor. Ceiling fans do not provide ventilation as defined as the introduction of outside air.

Natural ventilation is the ventilation of a building with outside air without the use of a fan or other mechanical system. It can be achieved with openable windows or trickle vents when the spaces to ventilate are small and the architecture permits. In more complex systems warm air in the building can be allowed to rise and flow out upper openings to the outside (stack effect) thus forcing cool outside air to be drawn into the building naturally through openings in the lower areas. These systems use very little energy but care must be taken to ensure the occupants' comfort. In warm or humid months, in many climates, maintaining thermal comfort solely via natural ventilation may not be possible so conventional air conditioning systems are used as backups. Air-side economizers perform the same function as natural ventilation, but use mechanical systems' fans, ducts, dampers, and control systems to introduce and distribute cool outdoor air when appropriate.

Definition
Ventilation is the intentional movement of air from outside a building to the inside. Ventilation air, as defined by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers in ASHRAE Standard 62.1 and the ASHRAE Handbook, is that air used for providing acceptable indoor air quality. It mustn't be confused with vents or flues; which mean the exhausts of clothes dryers and combustion equipment such as water heaters, boilers, fireplaces, and wood stoves. The vents or flues carry the products of combustion which have to be expelled from the building in a way which does not cause harm to the occupants of the building. Movement of air between indoor spaces, and not the outside, is called "transfer air".

History
The development of forced ventilation was spurred by the common belief in the late 18th and early 19th century in the miasma theory of disease, where stagnant 'airs' were thought to spread illness. An early method of ventilation was the use of a ventilating fire near an air vent which would forcibly cause the air in the building to circulate. English engineer John Theophilus Desaguliers provided an early example of this, when he installed ventilating fires in the air tubes on the roof of the House of Commons. Starting with the Covent Garden Theatre, gas burning chandeliers on the ceiling were often specially designed to perform a ventilating role.

Mechanical systems
A more sophisticated system involving the use of mechanical equipment to circulate the air was developed in the mid 19th century. A basic system of bellows was put in place to ventilate Newgate Prison and outlying buildings, by the engineer Stephen Hales in the mid-18th century. The problem with these early devices was that they required constant human labour to operate. David Boswell Reid was called to testify before a Parliamentary committee on proposed architectural designs for the new House of Commons, after the old one burned down in a fire in 1834. In January 1840 Reid was appointed by the committee for the House of Lords dealing with the construction of the replacement for the Houses of Parliament. The post was in the capacity of ventilation engineer, in effect; and with its creation there began a long series of quarrels between Reid and Charles Barry, the architect.

He advocated the installation of a very advanced ventilation system in the new House. His design had air being drawn into an underground chamber, where it would undergo either heating or cooling. It would then ascend into the chamber through thousands of small holes drilled into the floor, and would be extracted through the ceiling by a special ventilation fire within a great stack.

Reid's reputation was made by his work in Westminster. He was commissioned for an air quality survey in 1837 by the Leeds and Selby Railway in their tunnel. The steam vessels built for the Niger expedition of 1841 were fitted with ventilation systems based on Reid's Westminster model. Air was dried, filtered and passed over charcoal.

Reid's ventilation method was also applied more fully to St. George's Hall, Liverpool, where the architect, Harvey Lonsdale Elmes, requested that Reid should be involved in ventilation design. Reid considered this the only building in which his system was completely carried out.

Ventilation fans
With the advent of practical steam power, fans could finally be used for ventilation. Reid installed four steam powered fans in the ceiling of St George's Hospital in Liverpool, so that the pressure produced by the fans would force the incoming air upward and through vents in the ceiling.

Reid's pioneering work provides the basis for ventilation systems to this day. He was remembered as "Dr. Reid the ventilator" in the twenty-first century in discussions of energy efficiency, by Lord Wade of Chorlton.

Necessity
When people or animals are present in buildings, ventilation air is necessary to dilute odors and limit the concentration of carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants such as dust, smoke and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ventilation air is often delivered to spaces by mechanical systems which may also heat, cool, humidify and dehumidify the space. Air movement into buildings can occur due to uncontrolled infiltration of outside air through the building fabric (see stack effect) or the use of deliberate natural ventilation strategies. Advanced air filtration and treatment processes such as scrubbing, can provide ventilation air by cleaning and recirculating a proportion of the air inside a building.

Types of ventilation

 * Mechanical or forced ventilation: through an air handling unit or direct injection to a space by a fan. A local exhaust fan can enhance infiltration or natural ventilation, thus increasing the ventilation air flow rate.
 * Natural ventilation occurs when the air in a space is changed with outdoor air without the use of mechanical systems, such as a fan. Most often natural ventilation is assured through operable windows but it can also be achieved through temperature and pressure differences between spaces. Open windows or vents are not a good choice for ventilating a basement or other below ground structure. Allowing outside air into a cooler below ground space will cause problems with humidity and condensation.
 * Mixed Mode Ventilation or Hybrid ventilation: uses both mechanical and natural ventilation processes. The mechanical and natural components may be used in conjunction with each other or separately at different times of day. The natural component, sometimes subject to unpredictable external weather conditions may not always be adequate to ventilate the desired space. The mechanical component is then used to increase the overall ventilation rate so that the desired internal conditions are met. Alternatively the mechanical component may be used as a control measure to regulate the natural ventilation process, for example, to restrict the air change rate during periods of high wind speeds.
 * Infiltration is separate from ventilation, but is often used to provide ventilation air.

Ventilation rate
The ventilation rate, for CII buildings, is normally expressed by the volumetric flowrate of outside air being introduced to the building. The typical units used are cubic feet per minute (CFM) or liters per second (L/s). The ventilation rate can also be expressed on a per person or per unit floor area basis, such as CFM/p or CFM/ft², or as air changes per hour.

For residential buildings, which mostly rely on infiltration for meeting their ventilation needs, the common ventilation rate measure is the number of times the whole interior volume of air is replaced per hour, and is called air changes per hour (I or ACH; units of 1/h). During the winter, ACH may range from 0.50 to 0.41 in a tightly insulated house to 1.11 to 1.47 in a loosely insulated house.

ASHRAE now recommends ventilation rates dependent upon floor area, as a revision to the 62-2001 standard, in which the minimum ACH was 0.35, but no less than 15 CFM/person (7.1 L/s/person). As of 2003, the standard has been changed to 3 CFM/100 sq. ft. (15 l/s/100 sq. m.) plus 7.5 CFM/person (3.5 L/s/person).

Ventilation standards

 * In 1973, in response to the 1973 oil crisis and conservation concerns, ASHRAE Standards 62-73 and 62-81) reduced required ventilation from 10 CFM (4.76 L/S) per person to 5 CFM (2.37 L/S) per person. This was found to be a primary cause of sick building syndrome.
 * Current ASHRAE standards (Standard 62-89) states that appropriate ventilation guidelines are 20 CFM (9.2 L/s) per person in an office building, and 15 CFM (7.1 L/s) per person for schools. In commercial environments with tobacco smoke, the ventilation rate may range froand Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc, Atlanta, 2002.

In certain applications, such as submarines, pressurized aircraft, and spacecraft, ventilation air is also needed to provide oxygen, and to dilute carbon dioxide for survival. Batteries in submarines also discharge hydrogen gas, which must also be ventilated for health and safety. In any pressurized, regulated environment, ventilation is necessary to control any fires that may occur, as the flames may be deprived of oxygen.

ANSI/ASHRAE (Standard 62-89) sets maximum CO2 guidelines in commercial buildings at 1000 ppm, however, OSHA has set a limit of 5000 ppm over 8 hours.

Ventilation guidelines are based upon the minimum ventilation rate required to maintain acceptable levels of bioeffluents. Carbon dioxide is used as a reference point, as it is the gas of highest emission at a relatively constant value of 0.005 L/s. The mass balance equation is:

Q = G/(Ci − Ca)


 * Q = ventilation rate (L/s)
 * G = CO2 generation rate
 * Ci = acceptable indoor CO2 concentration
 * Ca = ambient CO2 concentration

Ventilation equipment

 * Fume hood
 * Biological safety
 * Dilution ventilation
 * Room air distribution
 * Heat recovery ventilation

Natural ventilation
Natural ventilation harnessing naturally available forces to supply and remove air in an enclosed space. There are three types of natural ventilation occurring in buildings: wind driven ventilation, pressure-driven flows, and stack ventilation. The pressures generated by 'the stack effect' rely upon the buoyancy of heated or rising air. Wind driven ventilation relies upon the force of the prevailing wind to pull and push air through the enclosed space as well as through breaches in the building’s envelope (see Infiltration (HVAC)).

Almost all historic buildings were ventilated naturally. The technique was generally abandoned in larger US buildings during the late 20th century as the use of air conditioning became more widespread. However, with the advent of advanced Building Energy Modeling (BEM) software, improved Building Automation Systems (BAS), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) design requirements, and improved window manufacturing techniques; natural ventilation has made a resurgence in commercial buildings both globally and throughout the US.

The benefits of natural ventilation include:
 * Improved Indoor air quality (IAQ)
 * Energy savings
 * Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
 * Occupant control
 * Reduction in occupant illness associated with Sick Building Syndrome
 * Increased worker productivity

Demand-controlled ventilation (DCV)
Demand-controlled ventilation (DCV, also known as Demand Control Ventilation) makes it possible to maintain proper ventilation and improve air quality while saving energy. ASHRAE has determined that: "It is consistent with the ventilation rate procedure that demand control be permitted for use to reduce the total outdoor air supply during periods of less occupancy." CO2 sensors will control the amount of ventilation for the actual number of occupants. During design occupancy, a unit with the DCV system will deliver the same amount of outdoor air as a unit using the ventilation-rate procedure. However, DCV can generate substantial energy savings whenever the space is occupied below the design level.

Local exhaust ventilation
Local exhaust ventilation addresses the issue of avoiding the contamination of indoor air by specific high-emission sources by capturing airborne contaminants before they are spread into the environment. This can include water vapor control, lavatory bioeffluent control, solvent vapors from industrial processes, and dust from wood- and metal-working machinery. Air can be exhausted through pressurized hoods or through the use of fans and pressurizing a specific area.

A local exhaust system is composed of 5 basic parts
 * 1) A hood that captures the contaminant at its source
 * 2) Ducts for transporting the air
 * 3) An air-cleaning device that removes/minimizes the contaminant
 * 4) A fan that moves the air through the system
 * 5) An exhaust stack through which the contaminated air is discharged

In the UK, the use of LEV systems have regulations set out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which are referred to as the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (CoSHH). Under CoSHH, legislation is set out to protect users of LEV systems by ensuring that all equipment is tested at least every fourteen months to ensure the LEV systems are performing adequately. All parts of the system must be visually inspected and thoroughly tested and where any parts are found to be defective the inspector must issue a red label to identify the defective part and the issue.

The owner of the LEV system must then have the defective parts repaired or replaced before the system can be used.

Ventilation and combustion
Combustion (e.g., fireplace, gas heater, candle, oil lamp, etc.) consumes oxygen while producing carbon dioxide and other unhealthy gases and smoke, requiring ventilation air. An open chimney promotes infiltration (i.e. natural ventilation) because of the negative pressure change induced by the buoyant, warmer air leaving through the chimney. The warm air is typically replaced by heavier, cold air.

Ventilation in a structure is also needed for removing water vapor produced by respiration, burning, and cooking, and for removing odors. If water vapor is permitted to accumulate, it may damage the structure, insulation, or finishes. When operating, an air conditioner usually removes excess moisture from the air. A dehumidifier may also be appropriate for removing airborne moisture.

Smoking and ventilation
ASHRAE standard 62 states that air removed from an area with environmental tobacco smoke shall not be recirculated into ETS-free air. A space with ETS requires more ventilation to achieve similar perceived air quality to that of a non-smoking environment.

The amount of ventilation in an ETS area is equal to the amount of ETS-free area plus the amount V, where:

V = DSD × VA × A/60E


 * V = recommended extra flow rate in CFM (L/s)
 * DSD = design smoking density (estimated number of cigarettes smoked per hour per unit area)
 * VA = volume of ventilation air per cigarette for the room being designed (ft3/cig)
 * E = contaminant removal effectiveness

Problems
In hot, humid climates, unconditioned ventilation air will deliver approximately one pound of water each day for each cfm of outdoor air per day, annual average. This is a great deal of moisture, and it can create serious indoor moisture and mold problems.
 * Ventilation efficiency is determined by design and layout, and is dependent upon placement and proximity of diffusers and return air outlets. If they are located closely together, supply air may mix with stale air, decreasing efficiency of the HVAC system, and creating air quality problems.
 * System imbalances occur when components of the HVAC system are improperly adjusted or installed, and can create pressure differences (too much circulating air creating a draft or too little circulating air creating stagnancy).
 * Cross-contamination occurs when pressure differences arise, forcing potentially contaminated air from one zone to an uncontaminated zone. This often involves undesired odors or VOCs.
 * Re-entry of exhaust air occurs when exhaust outlets and fresh air intakes are either too close, or prevailing winds change exhaust patterns, or by infiltration between intake and exhaust air flows.
 * Entrainment of contaminated outside air through intake flows will result in indoor air contamination. There are a variety of contaminated air sources, ranging from industrial effluent to VOCs put off by nearby construction work.

Air Quality Procedures
Ventilation Rate Procedure is rate based on standard, and “prescribes the rate at which ventilation air must be delivered to a space and various means to condition that air.” Air quality is assessed (through CO2 measurement) and ventilation rates are mathematically derived using constants.

Indoor Air Quality Procedure “uses one or more guidelines for the specification of acceptable concentrations of certain contaminants in indoor air but does not prescribe ventilation rates or air treatment methods.” This addresses both quantitative and subjective evaluation, and is based on the Ventilation Rate Procedure. It also accounts for potential contaminants that may have no measured limits, or limits are not set (such as formaldehyde offgassing from carpet and furniture).