Mechanical Ventilation and Fabric Thermal Storage

Abstract

Modern UK office buildings have a reputation of being energy profligate, largely due to the fan power requirements of commercial air conditioning. Most architects and HVAC designers only associate low-energy consumption with natural ventilation. However, the UK electricity utilities have peak maximum demands in winter, and buildings need to be designed for year-round low-energy usage. Relatively few monitored studies of the total annual energy implications of natural and mechanical ventilation strategies operating in conjunction with fabric thermal storage have been published. This paper reviews independently published performance data of low-energy buildings and the impact of the various ventilation and fabric energy storage strategies now available. It demonstrates that low-energy mechanical ventilation systems incorporating efficient heat recovery and effective fabric energy storage have higher year-round comfort criteria, and significantly lower prime energy consumption, than natural ventilation strategies. Supplementary cooling and heating demands and consumption are shown to be minimal in such buildings for temperate maritime climates.

Low-Carbon Housings and Indoor Air Quality

“…Braham [66] provided a review of low-energy building with various fabric energy storage and ventilation strategies and demonstrated that systems incorporating efficient heat recovery and effective fabric energy storage have higher year-round comfort criteria, and significantly lower prime energy consumption, than natural ventilation strategies. Supplementary cooling and heating demands and consumption are shown to be minimal in such buildings for temperate maritime climates.…”

“…There are various literature providing reviews and assessment of the effectiveness of various types of ventilations for various types of buildings [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. To satisfy the requirement of the building regulations (or building codes) of various countries, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery is required and there are various reports regarding the effectiveness of such system in terms of improving IAQ of homes [63][64][65] and offices [66][67][68][69][70]. There is also an increase use of demand control ventilation [71][72][73][74], higher efficiency of filters [75][76][77] and air-cleaning systems [78À81].…”

Improvement of Indoor Living Environment by Occupants’ Preferences for Heat Recovery Ventilators in High-Rise Residential Buildings

“…Various studies were performed to examine the applicability and contribution of HRVs to building energy savings [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The results of these studies implied that the annual heating energy could be effectively saved by the application of HRVs, and the energy savings would vary according to the outdoor climatic conditions that affected sensible and latent heat.…”