This paper discusses the development and application of standards of performance (SOPs) for HVAC&R equipment, plumbing systems, and building envelope systems in relation to maintaining acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) in buildings. The utilization of the SOP procedure, developed in ASHRAE Research Project 853, will aid in the proper operation of systems and verify that acceptable building IAQ levels are obtained.

This research evaluated the performance of four kinds of ventilation systems for dwellings under various conditions by means of numerical simulation. The total number of combinations of various parameters for the calculation was 174. Calculations were performed hourly for indoor air pollutant concentration, humidity and condensation, indoor outdoor pressure difference, airflow rate, and heat energy by ventilation, etc., through the heating season. A multizone infiltration and pollutant transport model (COMIS) was used to perform the simulation.

Residential air infiltration rates predicted by a detailed multizone computational model are compared with those predicted by a single-zone model. The multizone model is created using the public domain program CONTAM96, which allows the user to break the house into a number of Zones connected to one another and the outdoors by leakage paths with user-defined characteristics. Actual floor plans for a ranch-style house and typical published leakage characteristics of residential building components are used to construct a very detailed model with roughly 2,000 zones and 7,000 leakage paths.

Forced air distribution systems in residential buildings are often located outside conditioned space, for example in attics, crawlspaces, garages and basements. Leaks from the ducts to these unconditioned spaces or outside can change flows through the registers and change the ventilation rates of the conditioned spaces. In this study, duct leakage flows were measured in several low-rise apartment buildings. The leakage flow measurements and other data about the apartments were used to develop a prototype apartment building.

The goal of this work was to assess the performance of two common ventilation systems, an exhaust and an exhaust supply system, in Swedish apartment buildings. Since correct air-exchange and interzonal airflows are important for removing contaminants and improving indoor air quality, these airflows were analyzed by systematic computer calculations when selected input parameters were varied around their default values.

While monitoring the comparative performance of two test houses in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was noticed that the attic air temperature of one house with a plastic shake roof was consistently 20°F ( 11°C) cooler than its twin with asphalt shingles during peak summer cooling periods. More detailed monitoring of the temperatures on the plastic shake, the roof deck, and the attic showed this effect to be largely due to the plastic shake and not to better roof venting or other heat loss mechanisms.

Current model building codes require attic ventilation in all U.S. climates. Originally, these requirements were strictly based on concerns for condensation in attics during winter in cold climates, and they were based on limited technical information. Nevertheless, attic ventilation has become the uncontested strategy to minimize condensation and ice dams during winter and extreme attic temperatures during summer. However, other strategies exist that address each of these problems as well as or better than attic ventilation.

In the last decade, public awareness of the greenhouse effect has pushed the building sector toward higher energy efficiencies. This move has had consequences for roofs with a cathedral ceiling. AU-factor in the vicinity of 0.2 W/(m2·K) instead of 0. 6 W/(m2· K) became the new target value. The move toward such a low U-factor for cathedral ceilings was evaluated in an extended test house program.

This paper describes a residential research facility built for the experimental measurement of the relative energy and moisture performance of various residential building envelope components and systems. The building comprises 12 test bays on an east/west axis bounded on each end by a guard bay. The eastern six test bays are framed in steel, and the western six bays are framed in wood. Each half of the building contains a symmetrical mix of vented and unvented cathedral and attic roofing systems and is built above a heated basement.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) conducted a series of attic research projects from 1988to1997. Initially, there were few field test data to substantiate how attics dealt with air and moisture transfer. The CMHC research developed a test protocol for attic airtightness and air change testing and then proceeded to field testing of a variety of attics in different climatic areas. An attic model, ATTIX, was referenced against test hut data and used to simulate attic performance across Canada.