In the temperate climate region of Western Europe (UK/Belgium/France, The Netherlands,
Germany), simple exhaust ventilation is a widely used ventilation strategy in dwellings. The
merits of such systems in terms of ventilation performance have been studied intensively,
mainly regarding the impact of sizing of the components (Laverge & Janssens, 2013) and demand
controlled operation (Laverge et al. 2011).
Cross-ventilaton strategies usually focus on window opening behaviour and exposure of the
facades to the wind conditions. Maeyens (2003), however, demonstrated that the internal partitioning
of the dwelling has a major impact on the expected ventilation flow rates. In conditions
where the trickle ventilators of simple exhaust ventilation systems are sized for low
pressure differences such as in the Belgian (2 Pa) or Dutch (1 Pa) ventilation standards, the
pressure difference due to wind is often larger than that generated by the exhaust fan. Crossventilation
therefore plays a major role in the performance of such systems.
Below, the impact of internal partitioning of the dwelling on the share of cross ventilation in
the total ventilation flow rate and ventilation heat loss will be discussed
