Demand Controlled Ventilation

Saving energy, improving economy and protecting the environment with Flkt Woods Group

Saving Energy, Economy and Environment with Flkt Woods.

Introduction
Today, most people spend over 90 percent of their time indoors e.g. at home, in schools, at hospitals and offices. Breathing fresh indoor air is vital for our health, performance and weel being, and could in fact be considered as a basic human right (1). However, we also know that providing the necessary amount of fresh air to create a comfortable and healthy indoor climate consumes energy in terms of electrical fan power as well as coolingand heating energy. Energy that, when produced also has a negative impact on our environment and contributes to the CO2-emissions to our atmosphere.

and air conditioning are major contributors. to reduce the CO2 emissions with 20 percent until year 2010 (compared with 1996 levels), issued the Energy Performance in Buildings clear on the fact that energy savings in builclimate conditions. the Commission of the European Union have Directive (2002/91/EC). The directive is very dings should not negatively affect the indoor As a consequence, and with the objective

n fact, approximately 40 percent of all the energy consumed in the European Union is used for buildings where ventilation

Article 1 Objective The objective of this Directive is to promote of buildings within the Community, taking into account outdoor climatic and local ments and cost-effectiveness. Article 4 Setting of energy performance requirements 1. Member States shall take the necessary performance requirements for buildings measures to ensure that minimum energy are set, based on the methodology referred to in Article 3. When setting requirements, Member States may differentiate between new and existing buildings and different the improvement of the energy performance

The indoor air directly affects people in all stages of life. Childrens performance and recovery from illness when in hospitals, learning capabilities in classrooms, patients peoples productivity and quality of work

conditions, as well as indoor climate require-

when in offices are all examples where in-

ternational research have shown that indoor air quality (IAQ) has a critical impact on the outcome. In recent years, research has also shown a relation between inadequate ventizing the importance of providing a healthy indoor air climate. The expression indoor air quality has

lation and absence due to sickness emphasi-

different meanings depending on context. In this text, the following aspects of Air Quality are considered: and humidity.

Physical factors such as temperature Mechanical factors such as air velocity Human bioeffluents (e.g, odours). and ventilation rate.

categories of buildings. These requirements conditions, in order to avoid possible negawell as local conditions and the designated function and the age of the building. These requirements shall be reviewed at regular intervals which should not be longer than

shall take account of general indoor climate tive effects such as inadequate ventilation, as

So, is a healthy indoor air climate contradictory to a high level of energy performance in a building? No, the solution is Flkt Woods Groups ventilation strategy based on Demand Controlled Ventilation!

five years and, if necessary, updated in order to reflect technical progress in the building sector.
Source: EPBD 2002/91/EC

Saving Energy and Protecting the Environment with Demand Controlled Ventilation
What is Flkt Woods Group Demand Controlled Ventilation? It is a ventilation strategy for a system where the air flow to specific spaces in a building are individually and dynamically regulated to actual demand and requirements.

at the same time avoid unneccessary ventilation and thereby to save energy. Experience and field studies have shown

he main objective of a Demand Con-

trolled Ventilation system is to create a high level of indoor air quality and

largely depending on several parameters,

e.g. type of building, activities and purpose of the room, climatic (outdoors) conditions and time of the day. Just think of a classroom in a school where the occupancy

indicator of the air quality and ventilation rate, and could therefore be used as the determing parameter in Demand Control-

that the level of CO2 in a room is a reliable

pattern during a normal week changes from empty to 30 people several times every day. Here, it is obvious that a constant ventila-

tion rate based on the requirement for a full room will lead to waste of energy when the room is empty, or when only a few people are in the room.

led Ventilation systems. People are the main people in a room are doubled, the CO2 level a room, the level of CO2 will proportionally decrease.

source of CO2 in a building, if the number of will also double. If one, or a few people leave

Occupancy rates and energy savings An illustrating example of the variation in occupancy rates was presented 2005 in Here, results from field studies of three

indicates that the ventilation rate is insuf-

A high level of CO2 in a rooom (>1000ppm)

a doctoral thesis by Dennis Johansson (2). different buildings showed that the average occupancy rate varied between 35 and 55 % during normal office hours. The diagram shows that different spaces

ficient to obtain an adequate indoor quality. indicates that the ventilation rate could be turned down and thereby maintain a sufficient indoor air quality with lower energy costs. Large variations in ventilation requirements The usage pattern, and consequently the ventilation requirements of room can vary Consequently a low level of CO2 (<600ppm)

in the studied buildings are used to a dif-

ferent extent, but also that none of the room the ventilation system was designed ac-

are used even close to 100 %. Assuming that cording to peak load with a static, constant

air volume system (CAV), potential savings

from Demand Controlled Ventilation would be 45-65 %. In general, Demand Controlled Ventilation

that are subject to large variations or inter-

mittent occupancy, but also rooms with static quate ventilation provided with this concept.

systems are more advantageous in rooms

occupancy patterns will benefit from the ade-

Example 2 Occupancy rates for different spaces in three different buildings

80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50
(Dennis Johansson 2005) (Dennis Johansson 2005)

Occupancy rate / % Occupancy rate / %

40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10

MPO1 MPO1

MPO2 MPO2

MPO3 MPO3

MPO4 MPO4

MPO5 MPO5

MPO6 MPO6

MPO7 MPO7

MPO8 MPO8

MPO AvAv MPO

UD AvAv UD

Difference in occupancy between all-time and daytime Difference in occupancy between all-time and daytime Occupancy all-time Occupancy all-time

Tot av av Tot

UD1 UD1

UD2 UD2

UD3 UD3

UD4 UD4

UD5 UD5

UD6 UD6

UD7 UD7

IO IO Av Av

0 0

Improving Economy with Demand Controlled Ventilation

Indoor air quality has financial impact in the areas of peoples well-being and thereby costs for sick leaves and health care.

study published 2007 by Middlesex between levels of CO2 and well

University (3) shows the correlation

negative effects such as tiredness might

even involve critical risks e.g. in surgical Unsatisfied tenants could also lead to

being of occupants. The most important finlevels of CO2 rise, the health complaints,

rooms, nuclear- or military control rooms etc. increased costs for a building owner in

dings from this study was the fact that when tiredness and lack of concentration also rise. With CO2 levels above 1500ppm, 79 % of the occupants reported feeling tired, and above 2000ppm 65 % of the occupants reported having no level of concentration.

terms of additional administration, bad-will and ultimately loss of income if the tenants dequate indoor climate conditions. decide to leave the buidling because of inaSince CO2 levels in a room can be consi-

on the economical impact, the conclusion is undoubtedly that poor indoor air qualtity and decerased productivity and quality. will have impacy costs through sick leaves Depending on how a building is used, the

Even if it is difficult to set absolute figures

dered proportional to the ventilation rate, it is also interesting to study the relationship between ventilation rates and sick leaves. Example 4 shows the compiled results of will decrease when the ventilation rate increases.
X

several studies and suggests that sick leaves

Drinka (1996), illness in nursing home Brundage (1988), illness in barracks, all years Particle concentration model Brundage (1988), illness in barracks, 1983 data Milton (2000), sick leave in ofces

Example 3 & 4 The correlation between CO2 (ppm) level and perceived tiredness
30 25 30
25 20 20 15 15 10 5 0
(Julie J Bennet 2007)

3.

Relative sick-leave as a function of ventilation rate

1,0 Illness or sick leave prevalence relative to prevalence with no ventilation

Count of Level of tiredness during AM occupancy of room

4.
0,8

Count of Level of tiredness during AM occupancy of room

0,6
X

0,4
(Fisk et al. 2003)

10 1039 J Bennet 2007) (Julie 5 0

0,2

549549

612612

614

634

706

728

749

783753

853783

881853

884881

887884

892887

892

914

972

973

(blank)985

(blank)

0 0 1 2 3 4 Ventilation rate (h -1) air changes per hour

614

634

706

728

749

753

914

972

973

985

Alert and Awake

Alert and Awake Average Average No Level No Level

Tired, ocassional Yarning

Tired, ocassional Yarning Very Tired Very Tired (blank) (blank)

1039

Drinka (1996), illness in nursing home Brundage (1988), illness in barracks, all years Particle concentration model Brundage (1988), illness in barracks, 1983 data Milton (2000), sick leave in ofces

1,0 o

Indoor climate conditions, and its impact on human productivity

Human performance is highly affected by the thermal conditions and perceived level of comfort.

study by Bjarne Olsen from International Center for Indoor Environment and Energy (ICIEE) in Den-

References
(1) Under the principle of human right to health, everyone has the right to breathe healthy indoor air. EUR/00/5020494. World Health Organization (2) Modelling life cycle cost for indoor climate systems Dennis Johansson

mark, indicated that improved thermal comfort, reduction in indoor pollutants, and enhanced ventilation rates and effectiveness can increase productivity by 5 to 10 percent. Conversely, the research also indicates that a 10 percent decrease in tenant satisfaction with In Finland, researcher Olli Seppanen, IAQ results in a 1 percent drop in productivity from the Helsinki University of Technology, developed a conceptual model to estimate cost effectiveness based on improved indoor environment. The model shows a decrease in performance by 2 percent for each degree grees C and 32 degrees C. Optimal producthe space temperature was 22 degrees C. Cornell University, low temperatures in

Report TVBH-1014 Lund 2005. Building Physics LTH.

(3) Carbon Dioxide and IAQ Correlation, Julie J Bennet, M00029823. Middlesex University

Bjarne W. Olsen (4), Indoor Environment Health,

Comfort and Productivity, Clima 2005 Lausanne, 8th

REHVA World Congress, Switzerland, Oct. 9-12, 2005. Olli Seppanen and William Fisk (5), A Method to Estimate The Cost Effectiveness of Indoor Environments in Congress, Switzerland, Oct. 9-12, 2005 Office Work, Clima 2005 Lausanne, 8th REHVA World

increase of space temperature between 25 detivity performance was found to occur when In a study conducted by Allan Hedge of

Alan Hedge (6), Linking Environmental Conditions to tion, New York, June 2004.

Productivity, Eastern Ergonomics Conference & Exposi-

work space also have a negative impact on workers not only make more errors, but hourly labor cost by 10 percent.

productivity. His findings show that chilly cooler space temperature could increase the Flkt Woods conclusion from these find-

ings is that investing in a demand controlled ventilations system with individual temperature settings in every room will not only ce, but also reduce costs for sick leaves.

improve peoples well being and performan-

We Bring Air to Life

FlktWoods is a global leader in air management. We specialise in the design and manufacture of a wide range of air climate and air movement solutions. And our collective experience is unrivalled. Our constant aim is to provide systems that precisely deliver required function and performance, as well as maximise energy efficiency.
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