Assessment of Indoor Air Quality Benefits and Energy Costs of Mechanical Ventilation

Conference · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011

OSTI ID:1048295

Logue, J M; Price, P N; Sherman, M H; Singer, B C

Intake of chemical air pollutants in residences represents an important and substantial health hazard. Sealing homes to reduce air infiltration can save space conditioning energy, but can also increase indoor pollutant concentrations. Mechanical ventilation ensures a minimum amount of outdoor airflow that helps reduce concentrations of indoor emitted pollutants while requiring some energy for fan(s) and thermal conditioning of the added airflow. This work demonstrates a physics based, data driven modeling framework for comparing the costs and benefits of whole-house mechanical ventilation and applied the framework to new California homes. The results indicate that, on a population basis, the health benefits from reduced exposure to indoor pollutants in New California homes are worth the energy costs of adding mechanical ventilation as specified by ASHRAE Standard 62.2.This study determines the health burden for a subset of pollutants in indoor air and the costs and benefits of ASHRAE's mechanical ventilation standard (62.2) for new California homes. Results indicate that, on a population basis, the health benefits of new home mechanical ventilation justify the energy costs.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Environmental Energy Technologies Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1048295
• Report Number(s): LBNL-4945E
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AIR
AIR INFILTRATION
AIR QUALITY
CALIFORNIA
ENERGY ACCOUNTING
HEALTH HAZARDS
HOUSES
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
PHYSICS
POLLUTANTS
SIMULATION
VENTILATION