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Use of vents and stacks for natural ventilation
Macdonald, I. A.; Ouazia, B.; Zhou, L.
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Solplan Review, 152, pp. 18-19, 2010-06-01
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U se of ve nt s a nd st a c k s for na t ura l ve nt ila t ion
NRCC-53530
Macdonald, I.A.; Ouazia, B.; Zhou, L.
June 2010
A version of this document is published in / Une version de ce document se trouve dans:
Solplan Review, (152), pp. 18-19, June 01, 2010
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Use of Vents and Stacks for Natural Ventilation*
by Iain Macdonald, Boualem Ouazia and Liang (Grace) Zhou
The NRC Institute for Research in Construction has been investigating the use of hybrid
ventilation systems for single-family residential buildings in terms of their potential for meeting
code requirements, indoor air quality standards, and expectations for occupant satisfaction and
energy efficiency. Hybrid ventilation combines both mechanical and natural ventilation.
The research is important because ventilation and air-conditioning can account for up to 50% of
residential energy consumption, while having a direct impact on occupant health and comfort.
Natural ventilation may result in too little or too much fresh air exchange, and may waste energy
in heating or cooling a space. Mechanical ventilation is easily controlled and enables heat
recovery and filtration but it consumes electrical energy and thereby promotes greenhouse gas
emissions. Hybrid ventilation, combining the advantages of both natural and mechanical
ventilation, may offer a way to reduce the energy used for building ventilation.
The NRC-IRC research is seeking to develop innovative hybrid ventilation strategies that will be
suitable for houses, with or without good indoor air distribution provided by the (forced-air)
heating system. The experiments will assess several hybrid strategies in terms of ventilation rates
and distribution, energy consumption and thermal comfort, for a full range of weather conditions.
An important step in the process has been to understand the function and effectiveness of
ventilation stacks and other passive ventilation devices ( commonly used in Japan and
Scandinavia).
Experiments
The experiments were conducted in the two-storey NRC-IRC Ventilation and Wall Research
House facility in Ottawa. The house is fitted with three stacks (flues) and four basement vents
equipped with motorized dampers (Figure 1) that permit the testing of several venting
configurations.
Figure 1. Flues and vents
For the experiments, the forced-air delivery duct system of the research house was configured to
create a single ventilation zone and heating by means of an electric forced-air furnace or
hydronic radiant system. The objective was to determine the change in overall air exchange rate
in the house both with and without natural ventilation vents and stacks open.
Using tracer gas techniques, the study measured air change rate characteristics for 32
configurations for the forced-air cooling system (summer 2008), and 8 configurations for the
hydronic radiant heating system and 16 configurations for the forced-air heating system running
(winter 2009), with and without natural ventilation vents and stacks open.
The hydronic heating system was zoned on the first and second floors as shown on Figure 2 (i.e.,
temperature control was via thermostats in each room). To create a single air zone for the cases
using hydronic heating, the furnace fan was left running, but all space conditioning was provided
by the hydronic heating system.
Figure 2. Hydronic radiant heating on the first and second floors
Findings
During the summer, the stack/vent configurations were evaluated while the space was air
conditioned. Results are shown in Figure 3 and indicate that the greatest air change occurred with
the combination of the second floor stack (outlet) and the basement vent (west) (inlet). Due to
sheltering, wind direction had a greater effect on the vents than on the stacks, which explains
why one vent might appear to perform better than another. Making the vents more reactive to
wind direction will be part of the next stage of research (see Next Steps).
Figure 3. Air changes for stacks and vents
During the winter, the stack/vent combinations were evaluated with both the electric forced-air
heating system and the hydronic radiant system with the forced-air fan running. For the hydronic
heating system, all the vent/stack combinations had a minor influence on the air change rate of
the house. For the forced-air heating system, the vents and stacks had a greater influence on the
air change rate. The second floor stack had the most noticeable effect on the air change rate.
The winter testing confirmed the basic principle that stack effect increases with distance between
a vent and a stack and with increasing temperature differential between the outside air and the
conditioned interior air. This means that the second floor stack provided better ventilation than
the other stacks.
The difference in the performance of the natural ventilation configurations for the hydronic and
electric forced-air heating systems could not be explained by this initial round of experiments.
This too will be the subject of further research (see Next Steps).
The results-to-date indicate that 1) there is indeed potential for using passive ventilation in
combination with mechanical ventilation to reduce energy consumption without compromising
indoor air quality, and 2) hybrid ventilation may offer an energy-efficient approach to meet
ventilation requirements year round.
Next Steps
Future work will examine damper control and energy impacts of passive systems compared to
standard HVAC designs. NRC-IRC will be running new experiments (full 16 runs, both heating
systems) during the winter of 2010-11 to measure heating and ventilating energy consumption
and to understand the differences in the vent and stack configurations on air change rate for the
two types of heating. The next stage of research will also examine innovative control strategies
such as: wind speed and direction-dependent actuated passive vents to achieve efficient hybrid
ventilation regardless of wind direction and strength; and, using mechanical assistance to
supplement natural ventilation when required.
*A previous article in Solplan Review (September 2006) introduced the research described here.
For more information on ventilation, contact Iain Macdonald at 613-993-9676 or
[email protected].
For more information on radiant heating, contact Boualem Ouazia at 613-993-9613 or
[email protected]
Iain Macdonald, Boualem Ouazia and Grace Zhou are researchers in the Indoor Environment
Program of the NRC Institute for Research in Construction.