Energy-efficient ventilation is one of the most important conditions for meeting current energy performance requirements for buildings and to raise the performance of the building above the current minimum requirements. A smart ventilation system is continuously capable to adapt to deliver the desired indoor air quality (IAQ) while reducing energy consumption,minimize energy bills, thermal discomfort and noise. A smart ventilation system also responds to e.g.
occupancy, outdoor conditions, direct detection of contaminants and can provide information about e.g. IAQ, energy use and the need for maintenance or repair.
However, current practice in ventilation system design is driven by minimum requirements for IAQ, minimal energy consumption and/or investment costs. For medium-sized buildings, where the complexity of the system exceeds the typical 'all-in-one-box' solutions available for single-family homes, the design of ventilation systems is very conservative and inefficient. There is no method today to determine the most optimal system and the most optimal room layout in a specific building based on a coherent set of indicators for optimizing its design (i.e. indoor environmental quality (IAQ), energy consumption, life cycle costs, comfort, maintenance, robustness).
To meet this need, the applicants want to determine a performance-based method that will enable the design of a smart ventilation system as a whole, which is driven by optimization and which is the performance of the system throughout entire lifecycle assessment. The focus is on new and renovated medium-sized buildings with a minimum ventilation flow rate of 1000 m³/h, such as apartment complexes, schools, small-scale care institutions (e.g. retirement homes) and
office buildings.