Hybrid ventilation as a strategy for air renewing of nonresidential buildings with permanent occupation

Abstract

The main objective of this work is the evaluation of the capabilities of hybrid ventilation in air re- newal of non-residential buildings with continuum occ upation. For this purpose a common dwelling for elderly people was chosen. The simulation of the air fluxes was made by a multizone methodology, using the CONTAM program. The origin and the amount of the incoming air flux into each room is analyzed and com- pared with the requisites of the Portuguese standards. The first step is the selection of the rooms to be equipped with mechanical systems and those in which the air re newal is made by natural ventilation. Then, the recom- mended fluxes for air to be supplied and extracted are obtained. The optimization of grill localization and its ef- fective area is done for the most probabl e local climacteric conditi ons. The next step is th e evaluation of the ca- pabilities of the ventilation system designed for the building air renewa l accounting for all possible weather possibilities. The results obtained clearly demonstrate that hybrid ventilation is the recommended system for air renewal of non-residential buildings, but only if the elements responsible for natural ventilation were self- regulated or equipped with approp riate air flow control systems.