Environmental Control Systems 1

Ventilation

PROF. DR. SYED TAUSEEF AHMAD

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING & DESIGN
UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, LAHORE
Ventilation
• Ventilation is the process of "changing" or
replacing air in any space to provide
high indoor air quality (i.e. to control
temperature, replenish oxygen, or remove
moisture, odors, smoke, heat, dust, airborne
bacteria, and carbon dioxide).
• Ventilation includes both the exchange of air
to the outside as well as circulation of air
within the building. It is one of the most
important factors for maintaining acceptable
indoor air quality in buildings. Methods for
ventilating a building may be divided into;
–  mechanical or forced ventilation
– natural ventilation.
Ventilation
• In any occupied space ventilation is necessary to
provide oxygen and to remove contaminated air.
• Fresh air contains about 21% oxygen & 0.04%
carbon.
• Expired air contains 16% oxygen & 4% carbon
dioxide.
• Ventilation has a great effect on the heat loss from
buildings.
• The normal process of breathing gives
significant quantities of latent heat and
water vapor to the air.
• Body odours, bacteria, and the products of
smoking, cooking, and washing also
contaminate household air.
• In places of work, contamination may be
increased by a variety of gases and dusts.
Ventilation Rate
The ventilation rate, for aII buildings, is normally
expressed by the volumetric flow rate of outside air
being introduced to the building. The typical units
used are cubic feet per minute (CFM) or liters per
second (L/s). The ventilation rate can also be
expressed on a per person or per unit floor area
basis, such as CFM/p or CFM/ft², or as air changes
per hour
Typical Fresh air-supply rates

Types of spaces Recommended air-supply

Residences, offices, Shops 8 liters/s per person
Restaurants, bars 18 liters/s per person
Kitchens, domestic toilets 10 liters/s per person
Natural
Ventilation
• Natural Ventilation involves harnessing
naturally available forces to supply and
removing air through an enclosed space.
Need for Natural Ventilation
• Wide spread use of air-conditioners
• Very high prices of electricity.
• Brownouts and load shedding.
• Air-conditioned buildings become
intolerable.
Philosophy Of Natural Ventilation
• What one is trying to achieve with natural
ventilation?
• Design the building and the air paths through
it to meets those ends.
• It is necessary to understand in relation to a
particular building:
– Reason for using ventilation.
– Thermal comfort requirements of building occupants.
– Thermal performance of the building structure.
– Impact of building form and its openings.
– Constraints of the local and regional climate.

Unless all of these aspects are considered at the

design stage, it is unlikely that a good natural
ventilation system in a building can be achieved.
Functions of Natural Ventilation
• The supply of fresh air
• Physiological cooling
• Removing heat from, or adding it to, the
thermal mass in the building structure
Types of Natural Ventilation
• Natural ventilation is driven by the natural forces
of wind and temperature. It is created by
pressure differences between inside and outside
a building and is induced by wind and
temperature differences.
– Wind driven ventilation,
Wind pressure on a building depends on wind
direction, speed and shape of the building.
– temperature-driven ventilation,
Temperature differences between indoors and
outdoors causes density differences in the air which in
turn causes pressure differences.
Reason for the air to flow:
1. Natural convection currents caused by differences in
temperature
2. Differences in pressure
Ventilation and Buildings
• There are four main ways in which buildings are
naturally ventilate:
• Single sided Ventilation
• Cross Ventilation
• Stack Effect
• Reverse stack Effect
Cross Ventilation
Fin walls can
significantly increase
ventilation through
windows on the same
wall.

• Poor ventilation
results from fin walls
placed on the same side
of each window or
when two fins are used
on each window.
Stack Effect
ASSISTED STACK EFFECT
Reverse Stack Effect
The End