English

The extremes of arctic climate pose severe challenges on housing ventilation systems, energy consumption and demand for space heating for northern remote community residential buildings. As a part of the overall effort to reduce space heating requirements, dwellings are built air tight to reduce heat losses. However, airtight homes require energy efficient and effective ventilation systems to maintain acceptable indoor air quality and comfort, and to protect the building envelope from moisture damage.

Research shows that, despite compliance with building codes, residential ventilation systems do not deliver the requested air exchanges in the individual rooms. One of the reasons for this can be found in the way the building codes are composed. In general building codes only specify the minimum ventilation capacity that need to be installed in the various rooms. The actual performance of the ventilation system is left to the market.

The AcouReVe Project aimed to improve the knowledge and the quality of acoustic calculation in ventilation ductworks. Such calculations are based on simplified models and the main issue is the input data. For each component of the ductwork, acoustic insertion loss and/or sound generation due to air velocity has to be known. Some components are well described by manufacturers, such as terminal devices, silencers, but others are not known. Sometimes, literature exists and can help to assess the input data, but the values may be out of date or no longer reflect current practices.