Healthy Energy-efficient Urban Home Ventilation

The project “Healthy Energy-efficient Urban Home Ventilation,” also called Urban Ventilation, has aimed to establish knowledge and recommendations on robust ventilation solutions for private homes in an urban environment. Our homes have become both more energy and space efficient than before, and neither the requirements in TEK nor the standards reflect this development. The project has mapped typical designs of urban homes with regard to the number of rooms, function, expected number of residents, choice and placement of technical equipment and routing. Surveys and user diaries have also been used to map how residents use their homes, including cooking, showering habits and other things that affect the indoor climate and energy use. Cooking and the use of kitchen hoods have been one of several key themes. Capturing cooking fumes and reducing exposure in the room is important when assessing whether to use an extracting solution or a recirculating alternative. This has been investigated for a standard setup with a kitchen hood and a newer downdraft solution. Based on surveys, three standard meals have been developed. With advanced measurement techniques, the project has been able to study how meals contribute particles, from the smallest (ultrafine) particles to the slightly larger particles that are often referred to as particulate matter. We have also been able to study which organic gases are released during the different meals. The ability to capture fumes and exposure to health-related food contaminants at different solutions and airflow rates has been studied with high time resolution for particles and organic gases. Recirculating solutions use carbon filters, and these have also been tested in dedicated filter tests. Moisture problems are a crucial issue for new homes, where it is important to remove enough moisture to avoid moisture damage, but preferably also to avoid the air in the home becoming too dry. The project has collected log data from a number of small homes and carried out full-scale experiments. This has given us a better understanding of the moisture loads that occur in the shower, and how we can effectively get rid of enough of this moisture through suitably large air volumes through well-placed exhaust valves. We have also been able to create user profiles and archetypes of apartments for realistic numerical modelling of moisture, indoor climate and energy use. Results have been assessed against risk and best practice in a multidisciplinary assessment considering exposure, building physics, indoor climate and energy use. The assessments have been carried out primarily with the project's research partners, with good support from other partners through various workshops. Main findings and recommendations are provided for authorities, standardisation, manufacturers, designers and architects as well as residents. The project report SINTEF Fag 107 Urban Ventilation presents main findings and recommendations. Read more on our project website www.sintef.no/projectweb/healthy-energy-efficient-urban-home-ventilation/ The project has been funded by the Research Council of Norway’s EnergiX program. Industry partners in the project are Røros Metall AS (Røroshetta), BSH Household Appliances AS, Miele A/S, Engebretsen AS (BORA), Mestergruppen Bolig AS, Obos BBL, Selvaag Bolig ASA, Flexit AS. SINTEF has led the project and conducted the research in collaboration with the University of Oslo (UiO), OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The reference group has consisted of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, VKE - the Association for Ventilation, Cooling, and Energy, the Norwegian Home Builders’ Association, the Norwegian Asthma nd Allergy Association (NAAF), the Student Welfare Organization in Ås, Multiconsult, and the Directorate for Building Quality (DiBK).

Prosjektet gir dokumentasjon for valg av ventilasjonsløsninger i nye, urbane boliger, både med tanke på avtrekk til det fri kontra resirkulerende løsninger og bruk av filter, fuktforhold og inneklima i boliger. Resultatene gir innspill til revisjon av krav til luftmengder i TEK, anbefalinger til produktutvikling for produsenter og valg av løsning for prosjekterende og byggeiere. Forskningsresultatene gir nye metoder for testing og dokumentasjon av osppfangingsevne, eksponering og eksponeringsreduksjonsevne ved reell matlaging. Arbeidet gir grunnlag for videre arbeid med revisjon av eksisterende standarder.

To achieve sustainability goals, creating neighbourhoods with low energy demand and high quality of life is a priority for Europe. Building dwellings that are efficient in terms of energy, space and material use close to traffic hubs is an important contribution to these goals. These dwellings need ventilation solutions that can efficiently remove contaminants from various sources with minimal energy demand. User activities like cooking are becoming increasingly important contaminant sources with higher user density and more focus on low-emitting building materials. Too high ventilation rates can reduce indoor moisture below recommended levels and represent unnecessary energy use. Extract range hoods that periodically are removing large volumes of air is a technical challenge for the ventilation system, as replacing the extract air directly from the outdoor is often undesirable due to external temperature or air quality. Exhaust ducts from range hoods takes up valuable space in high- and medium-rise buildings, and accumulated grease in ducts can be a fire-risk. These result in new challenges for and increased focus on ventilation systems that can provide healthy, silent and energy efficient solutions to a vital rest and recreation area for the residents. The primary goal of the project is to establish knowledge and recommendations on robust ventilation strategies for urban apartments by enlarging energy recovery potentials, enabling power load peak shaving and a better indoor environment. Future urban homes need updated knowledge and recommendations for ventilation strategies, to enable development of innovative concepts, predictable product development and documentation towards healthy ventilation and indoor climate. This project aims to bring forward new knowledge on load profile, exposure to health related cooking pollutants, moisture and building physics as basis for recommended ventilation strategies for healthy urban homes.