Post Occupancy Evaluation of 23 Newly Renovated Apartments in Copenhagen: Performance of Ventilation Systems

The present article is based on a yearlong post occupancy evaluation of indoor air quality of recently renovated 23 apartments in Copenhagen. The apartments are equipped with novel mechanical ventilation systems. The apartments can be categorised in four, according to the design of ventilation systems. All the ventilation units are equipped with parallel plate cross flow heat exchangers. The analysis in present article is based on the measured indoor quality parameters as well as energy consumptions. Among four different types of ventilation systems, Type 1 is a traditional decentralized ventilation system which works only on two speeds i.e. high airflow rates when kitchen exhaust is on otherwise nominal airflow rates. Type 2 ventilation systems are the decentralized ventilation system with motion sensors in hallways, humidity sensors in rooms and kitchen exhaust hood sensors. Type 3 ventilation system is a centralized ventilation system with the motion sensors in hallways and toilets, humidity sensors in each room, and kitchen exhaust hood sensors. Type 4 ventilation system is a centralized ventilation system with only kitchen exhaust hood sensor. Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4 ventilation systems are also equipped with a newly designed drop type dampers that has a very low pressure drop. The dominant part of the study was based on the comparison of the performance of Type 1 ventilation system with the remaining three.