Demand control ventilation and Sri Lankan application - a case study

Abstract

Using Carbon Dioxide (CO2) has been oftenly used as a indicator of indoor air quality, thus now is been practice all over the world. Since advance technologies for gas sensing have been developed to regulate air handling systems while continuously monitoring the occupied building area. Either too little or too much fresh air can be a problem to the building functionality, where over ventilation results higher energy usage and cost than appropriate ventilation while potentially increasing indoor air quality problems in warm, humid climates. To ensure adequate ventilation to the buildings, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) had recommended ventilation rates in standard 62. Further, to coincide with the standards, many ventilation systems are designed to admit maximum level whenever a building is occupied, making the presumption that every area of the building is occupied, which leads towards over ventilated buildings. Adopting demand control ventilation (DCV) to a building will prevent over ventilation and secure the indoor from poor ventilation. In applications of CO2 based demand control ventilation, minimum base ventilation should be provided, and system is much appropriate for the areas where human activities are held. The potential amount of energy saved due to the implementation of a DCV system will be momentous in large commercial buildings. Adopting this system will reduce the amount of energy that a ventilation system requires to accumulate in a given time that depends on the occupancy level.