BUILDING COMPULSORY REGULATION CONTROLS: A PRECIOUS SOURCE OF FIELD DATA ON VENTILATION SYSTEMS QUALITY

Abstract

Air change rates in buildings are necessary to ensure a good indoor air quality, but they have to be limited because of their impact on energy performance. It is also recognized that the design of low energy buildings should be based on airtight envelopes, associated with efficient ventilation systems. In this way, the new French energy performance regulation (2012) imposes an envelope airtightness requirement for all new dwelling. However this EP-regulation does not include any requirement on ventilation rates. Aeration of dwellings depends on another 30 years old regulation. In this context, building’s sector logically wonders about the risk for a generation of performing airtight dwellings, which may contribute to an unhealthy indoor air. An important issue is: what do we know exactly of the real efficiency of those ventilation systems, once they are installed and in-use in the buildings? To answer this question, we analyzed available data from building compulsory regulation controls, which concern several regulations, including energy performance and dwellings aeration. Analysis of the dysfunctions observed on a sample of 1287 dwellings allows us to raise an accurate picture of ventilation systems quality on sites. From a global point of view, we observed that 68% of the single-family dwellings, and 44% of the multi-family dwellings of the sample, do not comply with the regulation. From a finer point of view, it is possible to understand more specifically what are the underlined technical and organizational reasons. This original first analysis represents an essential step towards the final goal: find solutions for increasing ventilation quality. First, the paper presents the regulation compulsory controls and why they drive to a precious database. Then, it gives an overview of the analyzed sample. Finally, results of the detailed analysis of dysfunctions compilation are presented, leading to some proposals for improving ventilation system mounting.