Indoor air quality in California homes with code-required mechanical ventilation.

Data were collected in 70 detached houses built in 2011-2017 in compliance with the mechanical ventilation requirements of California's building energy efficiency standards. Each home was monitored for a 1-week period with windows closed and the central mechanical ventilation system operating. Pollutant measurements included time-resolved fine particulate matter (PM2.5 ) indoors and outdoors and formaldehyde and carbon dioxide (CO2 ) indoors. Time-integrated measurements were made for formaldehyde, NO2 , and nitrogen oxides (NOX ) indoors and outdoors. Operation of the cooktop, range hood, and other exhaust fans was continuously recorded during the monitoring period. Onetime diagnostic measurements included mechanical airflows and envelope and duct system air leakage. All homes met or were very close to meeting the ventilation requirements. On average, the dwelling unit ventilation fan moved 50% more airflow than the minimum requirement. Pollutant concentrations were similar to or lower than those reported in a 2006-2007 study of California new homes built in 2002-2005. Mean and median indoor concentrations were lower by 44% and 38% for formaldehyde and 44% and 54% for PM2.5 . Ventilation fans were operating in only 26% of homes when first visited, and the control switches in many homes did not have informative labels as required by building standards

Reducing Wind Sensitivity for Blower Door Testing

The fan pressurization method is a common practice in many countries for measuring the air leakage of houses. The test results are sensitive to uncertainties in the measured pressures and airflows. In particular, changing wind conditions during a test result in some pressure stations having more or less uncertainty than others. Usually, it is necessary to fit the measured data to the power-law equation. Using the ordinary least square (OLS) fitting method, the pressure exponent and flow coefficient can be determined, and the reported data at high pressures can be extrapolated to small pressures where natural infiltration occurs. However, this fitting method neglects the existing of the uncertainty of these measurements, which may lead to errors in the prediction of flows at low pressures and therefore to unreliable input data for energy simulations. The weighted line of organic correlation (WLOC) takes the uncertainty at each pressure station into account and minimizes the fitting residuals for both pressure and flow. This paper shows the results of a statistical analysis of an extensive data set of over 7.400 fan pressurization test of six houses in 109 different leakage configurations. It was found that in over 90 % of the analyzed cases, WLOC enables a more reliable prediction of pressure exponent and flow coefficient at low pressure compared to OLS and appears to be a better fitting technique

Heat recovery in building envelopes

ABSTRACT Infiltration has traditionally been assumed to contribute to the energy load of a building by an amount equal to the product of the infiltration flow rate and the enthalpy difference between inside and outside. Application of such a simple formula may produce an unreasonably high contribution because of heat recovery within the building envelope. Previous laboratory and simulation research has indicated that such heat transfer between the infiltrating air and walls may be substantial. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics was used to simulate sensible heat transfer in typical envelope constructions. The results show that the traditional method may over-predict the infiltration energy load by up to 95 percent at low leakage rates. A simplified physical model has been developed and used to predict the infiltration heat recovery based on the Peclet number of the flow and the fraction of the building envelope active in infiltration heat recovery

Evaluation of flow capture techniques for measuring HVAC grilleairflows

This paper discusses the accuracy of commercially available flow hoods for residential applications. Results of laboratory and field tests indicate these hoods can be inadequate to measure airflows in residential systems, and there can be large measurement discrepancies between different flow hoods. The errors are due to poor calibrations, sensitivity of the hoods to grille airflow non-uniformities, and flow changes from added flow resistance. It is possible to obtain reasonable results using some flow hoods if the field tests are carefully done, the grilles are appropriate, and grille location does not restrict flow hood placement. We also evaluated several simple flow capture techniques for measuring grille airflows that could be adopted by the HVAC industry and homeowners as simple diagnostics. These simple techniques can be as accurate as commercially available devices. Our test results also show that current calibration procedures for flow hoods do not account for field application problems. As a result, agencies such as ASHRAE or ASTM need to develop a new standard for flow hood calibration, along with a new measurement standard to address field use of flow capture techniques

Laser sheet light flow visualization for evaluating room air flowsfrom Registers

Forced air heating and cooling systems and whole house ventilation systems deliver air to individual rooms in a house via supply registers located on walls ceilings or floors; and occasionally less straightforward locations like toe-kicks below cabinets. Ideally, the air velocity out of the registers combined with the turbulence of the flow, vectoring of air by register vanes and geometry of register placement combine to mix the supply air within the room. A particular issue that has been raised recently is the performance of multiple capacity and air flow HVAC systems. These systems vary the air flow rate through the distribution system depending on the system load, or if operating in a ventilation rather than a space conditioning mode. These systems have been developed to maximize equipment efficiency, however, the high efficiency ratings do not include any room mixing effects. At lower air flow rates, there is the possibility that room air will be poorly mixed, leading to thermal stratification and reduced comfort for occupants. This can lead to increased energy use as the occupants adjust the thermostat settings to compensate and parts of the conditioned space have higher envelope temperature differences than for the well mixed case. In addition, lack of comfort can be a barrier to market acceptance of these higher efficiency systems To investigate the effect on room mixing of reduced air flow rates requires the measurement of mixing of supply air with room air throughout the space to be conditioned. This is a particularly difficult exercise if we want to determine the transient performance of the space conditioning system. Full scale experiments can be done in special test chambers, but the spatial resolution required to fully examine the mixing problem is usually limited by the sheer number of thermal sensors required. Current full-scale laboratory testing is therefore severely limited in its resolution. As an alternative, we used a water-filled scale model of a room in which whole-field supply air mixing maps of two vertical planes were measured using a Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) measurement technique. Water marked with fluorescent dye was used to simulate the supply airflow; and the resulting concentrations within the water filled model show how the supply air mixes with the room air and are an analog for temperature (for thermal loads) or fresh air (for ventilation). In addition to performing experiments over a range of flow rates, we also changed register locations and examined the effects for both heating and cooling operation by changing the water density (simulating air density changes due to temperature changes) using dissolved salt

Meeting residential ventilation standards through dynamic control of ventilation systems

Existing ventilation standards, including American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 62.2, specify continuous operation of a defined mechanical ventilation system to provide minimum ventilation, with time-based intermittent operation as an option. This requirement ignores several factors and concerns including: other equipment such as household exhaust fans that might incidentally provide ventilation, negative impacts of ventilation when outdoor pollutant levels are high, the importance of minimizing energy use particularly during times of peak electricity demand, and how the energy used to condition air as part of ventilation system operation changes with outdoor conditions. Dynamic control of ventilation systems can provide ventilation equivalent to or better than what is required by standards while minimizing energy costs and can also add value by shifting load during peak times and reducing intake of outdoor air contaminants. This article describes the logic that enables dynamic control of whole-house ventilation systems to meet the intent of ventilation standards and demonstrates the dynamic ventilation system control concept through simulations and field tests of the Residential Integrated Ventilation-Energy Controller (RIVEC)

Ozone Reductions Using Residential Building Envelopes

Ozone is an air pollutant with that can have significant health effects and a significant source of ozone in some regions of California is outdoor air. Because people spend the vast majority of their time indoors, reduction in indoor levels of ozone could lead to improved health for many California residents. Ozone is removed from indoor air by surface reactions and can also be filtered by building envelopes. The magnitude of the envelope impact depends on the specific building materials that the air flows over and the geometry of the air flow paths through the envelope that can be changes by mechanical ventilation operation. The 2008 Residential Building Standards in California include minimum requirements for mechanical ventilation by referencing ASHRAE Standard 62.2. This study examines the changes in indoor ozone depending on the mechanical ventilation system selected to meet these requirements. This study used detailed simulations of ventilation in a house to examine the impacts of different ventilation systems on indoor ozone concentrations. The simulation results showed that staying indoors reduces exposure to ozone by 80percent to 90percent, that exhaust ventilation systems lead to lower indoor ozone concentrations, that opening of windows should be avoided at times of high outdoor ozone, and that changing the time at which mechanical ventilation occurs has the ability to halve exposure to ozone. Future work should focus on the products of ozone reactions in the building envelope and the fate of these products with respect to indoor exposures

Measured Air Distribution Effectiveness for Residential Mechanical Ventilation Systems

The purpose of ventilation is dilute or remove indoor contaminants that an occupant is exposed to. In a multi-zone environment such as a house, there will be different dilution rates and different source strengths in every zone. Most US homes have central HVAC systems, which tend to mix the air thus the indoor conditions between zones. Different types of ventilation systems will provide different amounts of exposure depending on the effectiveness of their air distribution systems and the location of sources and occupants. This paper will report on field measurements using a unique multi-tracer measurement system that has the capacity to measure not only the flow of outdoor air to each zone, but zone-to-zone transport. The paper will derive seven different metrics for the evaluation of air distribution. Measured data from two homes with different levels of natural infiltration will be used to evaluate these metrics for three different ASHRAE Standard 62.2 compliant ventilation systems. Such information can be used to determine the effectiveness of different systems so that appropriate adjustments can be made in residential ventilation standards such as ASHRAE Standard 62.2

Improving air handler efficiency in residential HVAC applications

In continuing the development of energy efficiency standards, consideration has turned to air handlers used for heating and air conditioning of consumer residences. These air handlers have typical efficiencies of about 10% to 15% due to poor electric motor performance and aerodynamically poor fans and fan housings. This study was undertaken to examine some of these performance issues, under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, to support potential regulatory changes. In addition, this study examined the performance of a prototype air handler fan assembly that offers the potential for substantial increases in performance. This prototype and a standard production fan were tested in a full-scale duct system and test chamber at LBNL which was specifically designed for testing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. The laboratory tests compared efficiency, total airflow, sensitivity to duct system flow resistance, and the effects of installation in a smaller cabinet. The test results showed that, averaged over a wide range of operating conditions, the prototype air handler had about twice the efficiency of the standard air handler and was less sensitive to duct system flow resistance changes. The performance of both air handlers was significantly reduced by reducing the space between the air handler and the cabinet it was installed in. Therefore any fan rating needs to be performed using the actual cabinet it will be used in

Comparison of Airflow and Acoustic Measurements for Evaluation of Building Air Leakage Paths in a Laboratory Test Apparatus

Unintended Infiltration in buildings is responsible for a significant portion of the global housing stock energy demand. Today, the fan pressurization method, also known as blower-door test, is the most frequently used measurement method to evaluate the airtightness of buildings and determining the total air change rate of a building or a building element. However, the localization and quantification of single leaks in the building envelope remain difficult and time-consuming. In this paper, an acoustic method is introduced to estimate the leakage size of single leaks in buildings. Sound transmission measurements and measurements of airflow have been conducted in a laboratory test apparatus. The objective of this investigation is to compare acoustic measurements with airflow measurements of leaks under the same boundary conditions. The test apparatus consists of two chambers, which are separated by a test wall. This test wall represents a single characteristic air leakage path in the building envelope. Various types of wall structures with different slit geometries, wall thicknesses and insulation materials have been investigated. The acoustic measurements have been performed with a sound source placed in one chamber and ultrasonic microphones located in both chambers. The results of the acoustic measurements were compared to airflows through the test wall measured using a flow nozzle to provide estimates of the uncertainty in the acoustic approach