Everyone knows that air quality is a decisive factor when it comes to comfort at home and in the office. Additionally, modern building regulations make cutting energy costs a major priority. This is why intelligent ventilation system adapted to the specific needs of dwellings and office buildings is a must have.
The first objective of a ventilation system is to ensure good indoor air quality by replacing stale air with fresh air from outdoors. While indoor pollution – a result of emissions from the human metabolism, indoor activities, and building materials and furniture – is a complex of many types of pollutants, humidity plays a remarkable and specific role in the residential context. A good ventilation system is the better way to make this pollution disappear.
Because of new energy and acoustic requirements for dwellings, new constructions and renovated buildings are now basically an envelope with reinforced insulation and sealing, while older buildings are generally ‘over-ventilated’ due to leaky windows and outside walls.
In new buildings and refurbishment, when ventilation is absent or insufficient, the new air cannot enter, creating manifest problems: air quality declines and excess steam condenses on the coldest parts of the dwelling. Openings must therefore be created for fresh air to circulate through the dwelling. To overcome problems, it is necessary to recreate a ventilation circuit. Fresh new air is brought into the least polluted rooms and polluted air is extracted through wet rooms.
However, care must be taken not to ventilate in an excessive way because air renewal has one big flaw: exhausting hot air and thus contributing to energy loss. Yet building energy requirements are getting more and more strict. As a consequence, energy performance of ventilation system represents a real issue for the dwellings of tomorrow.
Today, the main source of energy savings is in ventilation. If this represents on average 20 to 25% heating costs for uninsulated or poorly insulated housing, this level can reach 50% of heat losses on a very airtight insulated house.
Choosing the appropriate ventilation system is essential. The right technique depends on the targets but depends more specifically on the environment. This is particularly true about renovations, since the technique must be adapted to the existing architecture.
