In France, most of the ventilation systems in dwellings now consist of exhaust vents linked up with a fan, and air inlets. A survey conducted by the CSTB shows that actual ventilation rates are frequently different from prescribed values and that a lot of problems encountered are related to occupant behaviour, - The duration of exhaust flowrate peak value was measured ; it was shown that this duration was dependent on the kind of command and its location in the room. - draughts through air inlets were a major concern. - a lots of air vents did not operate correctly because of fouling.
In this paper we approach the subject of ventilation and occupant behavior in multifamily buildings by asking three questions: 1) why and how do occupants interact with ventilation in an apartment building, 2) how does the physical environment (i.e., building characteristics and climate) affect the ventilation in an apartment, and 3) what methods can be used to answer the first two questions. To investigate these and other questions, two apartment buildings in Chicago were monitored during the 1985 - 1986 heating season.
An energy efficiency monitoring programme was carried out from 1984 to 1986 by the South London Consortium Energy Group, United Kingdom Department of Energy, with assistance from British Gas, Watson House, as part of a demonstration project funded by the United Kingdom Department of Energy, the EEC and SLC Energy Group. 18 occupied low energy houses were thoroughly instrumented in order to monitor energy usage and occupant hehaviour.
A balanced ventilation system with heat recovery was designed and installed into an 11 storey prefabricated block building. Monitoring of the system operation was accomplished during a year. Operational characteristics, quantified energy saving, indoor climate parameters and the effect of occupants' behaviour on those were determined and analysed. Temperature runs during durable window opening and cooking periods were monitored and on the basis of the results comparison between the new experimental and the traditional reference system was made.
The occupants' behaviour is one of the parameters which has the greatest influence on the air change in the dwelling. This applies both to naturally and to mechanically ventilated dwellings. On the basis of continuous measurement of the air change in 25 dwellings, the relation between the ventilation system and air change and between the number of occupants and air change is discussed. The air change in the 25 dwellings has been measured for a period of about one week during occupancy. The measuring principle applied is "the method with constant concentration of tracer gas".
Within the framework of the national research project "Ventilationin Housing Construction", studies on occupants ' ventilation behaviour were conducted in a demonstration building in Duisburg- Neumuhl (Federal Rep. of Germany) which also formed part of the project . Analyses were based on values measured from Jan, 1 - Dec. 31, 1984 in 24 flats with identical ground plans, all of which were equipped with mechanical ventilation systems.
Occupants can significantly influence both the heating energy requirements and the indoor air quality of a building by opening and closing doors and windows. If the effects of these actions are to be accurately estimated, both the quantity and character of these exchange flows must be determined. In this paper, data on gravity-driven exchange rates through open doors obtained from field experiments at the Alberta Home Heating Research Facility are compared with laboratory model simulations and theoretical predictions.
The effects on ventilation behaviour of inhabitants in residential buildings have been investigated as a part within several years' German R and Dprogramme. The investigations have shown that the ventilation behaviour seems to be dominated by traditional behaviour patterns, e.g. ventilating bedrooms, and subjective impressions. There is only a modest correlation between window opening and needs for indoor air quality and energy conservation. Up to nowmost of the inhabitants do not assess correctly their own window opening behaviour.
The objective of this study is to provide an explanatory model for total energy consumption in electrically heated single-family dwellings, based on publicly available socio-economic records in Sweden. An earlier study based on 3,200 houses, divided into 93 groups of similar design, has shown that energy consumption for one house may be twice that of another house in the same area, built to an identical design. The problem is: how much of this scatter depends on occupancy behaviour? The present study is based on 78 similar houses, electrically heated, built as one group in 1969.