AIVC publication

Substantial energy is used to condition the air that enters California homes through leaks in the building envelope and ductwork - typically about a third of all heating and cooling. Reducing this through air sealing is essential to California achieving zero energy homes. However, this outdoor air also dilutes pollutants emitted inside homes and contributes to a healthy indoor environment and acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ). To address this IAQ issue, California’s Title 24 Building Standards have required mechanical ventilation in new homes since 2008.

Ventilation Information Paper no39: “A review of performance-based approaches to residential smart ventilation” provides an overview of the regulations and standards proposing “performance-based approaches” in five countries to promote the use of smart ventilation strategies. It shows that a favorable context exists in many countries for the development of smart ventilation strategies.

In March 2017, AIVC identified smart ventilation for buildings as a new and important topic to be addressed.

Several actions were defined by AIVC Board about this topic in order to exchange and disseminate information on this topic. A working group of AIVC experts from several countries was created. One of its tasks was to agree on a definition of smart ventilation.

The purpose of this ventilation information paper is to present and illustrate this definition of "smart ventilation".

The objective of present work was to develop the metric that assess the performance of solutions securing high indoor air quality in low-energy (modern) residential buildings. This was achieved by summarizing data on the levels and types of gaseous pollutants and particulate matter in low-energy buildings and comparing them with the existing exposure limits for pollutants.

Because buildings are responsible for 40% of energy use and 36% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions in the EU, energy efficiency in buildings has become a priority to drastically reduce the energy use in buildings. Consequently, a number of policy measures have been implemented in European Member States to drive the market towards Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings, including the Energy Performance of Buildings Certificates (EPCs), which are the most visible instrument of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

This Ventilation Information Paper analyses both the policy instruments used (regulatory requirements and incentives, specific programme requirements, quality frameworks for testers and builders) and the changes observed in practice in terms of building and ductwork airtightness over the past 5 years, using as reference mostly publications from AIVC and TightVent led events. Although we have not restricted our literature review to specific parts of the world, the majority of the publications we found come from Europe and the USA.

This report summarises the outcome of the work of the initial working phase of IEA ECB Annex 62 Ventilative Cooling and is based on the findings in the participating countries.

The objective of this study was the development of a new test method for portable indoor air cleaners.