The homogeneous emission passive tracer gas technique is described. This technique relies on an even distribution of constant tracer gas emission rate within the object to be measured, so that the emission rate per volume unit is constant. The local steady state concentration of the tracer gas is directly proportional to the local mean age of air and the emission rate per volume unit.

Full scale measurements of air flow velocities, temperature, intensity of turbulence and air exchange rate are carried out on two rooms with different types of ventilation located in the department of architecture at Chalmers University of Technology. The measurements have shown that mixed ventilation gives variable mean flow velocities with a high risk of draught as compared to the room provided with displacement ventilation. Air exchange rate for the room with displacement ventilation is obtained from tracer gas monitor by employing decay and constant emission methods.

The problem of sensation of draught in ventilated spaces is connected to inappropriate velocities in the occupied zone. In Scandinavia, velocities higher than 0.15 m/s are said to be an indicator of that occupants are likely to feel discomfort. Therefore knowledge of the flow field (both mean velocities and fluctuations) is necessary. Both experimental and numerical analysis of the flow field in a full scale room ventilated by a slot inlet, with two inlet Reynolds numbers 2440 and 7110, have been carried out .

Many modern buildings in the Nordic countries have mechanical ventilation. Passive stack ventilation is, however, an accepted ventilation system in the Nordic countries according to the current building codes. The building authorities need to be able to supply guidelines on natural ventilation systems in modern buildings, in order to fullfill the requirements on a healthy indoor climate at a reasonable energy cost. Therefore a project was initiated by the Nordic committee on building regulations.

Ventilation is necessary to provide a good indoor air quality to occupants in office buildings but is however a major energy consumer. In that manner, ventilation in itself can contribute to much more than 50% of the energy consumption for heating in well insulated office buildings. Likewise, the general trend in standards to augment ventilation requirements would still increase its energy costs. Thus, it seems obvious that an intelligent control of ventilation in office building allows to obtain substantial reductions of energy consumption.

To ensure indoor air quality an efficient ventilation system should provide fresh air in those parts of a room where it is required. To assess whether the ventilation system fblfils the main objective, different definitions of local ventilation efficiency (the local mean age of air, the local ventilation rate, the local purging flow rate and the local air exchange rate) are reported in literature.

The acceptance and appreciation of ventilation systems is mainly determined by the perceived indoor air quality, thermal comfort and noise. Noise in relation to ventilation systems can be divided into three categories: outdoor noise (entering the dwelling through ventilation openings, cracks, mechanical supply and exhaust openings etc.); noise generated by components of the ventilation system; the impact of ventilation systems on sound reduction of partitions (between dwellings, rooms etc.). Depending on the type of ventilation system, one or more of these aspects are of concern.

The research community as well as the design and construction practice is spending a lot of efforts and investments in developing systems which optimise the energy use for achieving certain specified air flow rates. For example, improvements in efficiencies of 10 % in heat recovery systems would be considered as remarkable. At present, one observes a tremendous difference in the ventilation requirements in various countries as well as at the European level.

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 LTEE laboratory of Hydro-Quebec, in collaboration with Canada Mortgage and Housing conducted an indoor air quality study involving 30 single family detached houses heated with electric baseboard heaters in the vicinity of Trois Rivières during the 1993-94 heating season. The houses were selected according to the measured air leakage at 50 Pa, so as to have a sample distribution similar to the distribution of air leakage of houses in the province of Quebec.