Building AdVent

Ventilation is an essential part in building design and operation for delivering a comfortable thermal environment and adequate indoor air quality, but brings with it a significant energy load. The main objective of this project is to support a reduction in the energy required to deliver ventilation effectively in non-domestic buildings.

This will be achieved by capturing good ventilation practice and disseminating it widely to appropriate actors in a suitable format. This will facilitate an effective route to communicate proven case studies that can be seen to have worked. 

Development objectives include

(a) classification of existing building ventilation technologies as applied in built examples and collection of additional information on building performance,

(b) identification of barriers for future application and

(c) preparing the case-studies in a common format together with training material.  

The best designers are aware of a range of effective approaches to delivering low energy ventilation, and there are known examples of their implementation. What is lacking is a broader understanding of how well these systems work, and how to include them in a wider range of building projects. The work programme focus on the collation of 18 case studies of effective solutions in three different climate regimes (a) hot summers (limited heating) (b) cold winters (limited cooling) and intermediate. From these case studies, limited further analysis will support the development of guidance on the approaches to be taken to deliver an optimum solution for any given set of circumstances. This will need to take into account climate, building type and local setting. The work programme includes seven work packages with an overall duration of 30 months. Each work package has a work programme with clearly assigned responsibilities and deliverables.