Ventilation quality assessment by tenants.

A large part of the housing stock in the Netherlands is ventilated badly. Exhaust systems do not work according to building standards. Bad design, bad maintenance and deterioration give a reduction in exhaust volumes of more than 50 %. Home owners and tenants compensate with extra cross-ventilation, but often the results is poor. The National Union of Tenants and the Research Institute OTB cooperated in the design of a quality assessment tool, to evaluate the provisions for ventilation in housing. The tool is a checklist for the quality of ventilation services in the house. The objective of the tool is the promotion of good ventilation, for better indoor air quality. The motivation for this tool is the need of healthy housing. Information campaigns for better behaviour have more impact, when the technical services are improved as well. The tool results in more awareness of the ventilation system and the effect of ventilation on indoor air quality. By promoting technical measures, it is more likely that ventilation behaviour will improve as well. The use of the tool has been monitored. The results show that the tool is well accepted. The opinion on the quality of the ventilation system changes into a more negative opinion. This indicates awareness of problem situations, which is an important first step towards improvement of domestic ventilation. The preliminary results of 980 returned questionnaires, representing the situation in 51,724 houses, are presented.