IEA EBC Annex 68 – Consequences on ventilation and hygrothermal operation of buildings

The objective of the IEA EBC Annex 68 Project, “Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings”, has been to develop the fundamental basis for optimal design and control strategies for good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in highly energy efficient residential buildings. Focus has been on emission of chemical pollutants from building products and use of ventilation to alleviate IAQ effects.

The question has been whether new paradigms for demand control should be developed based on knowledge from this project. The paper gives an overview of the project’s activities with regards to: - Gathering of laboratory and field data on pollution sources in buildings. - Formulation of a so-called “similarity approach” to predict emissions of volatile organic compounds based on knowledge from moisture transfer properties. - Gathering of a set of contemporary models to simulate the combined heat, air, moisture and pollution conditions of buildings and their assemblies.

Based on this background, the project has identified and described an extended set of amenable ways to optimize the provision of ventilation and air-conditioning and to assess possibilities to bring this knowledge into practice. The paper gives an overview of the suggested solutions and their conditions.