Comparison of Measured and Calculated Air Changes due to Single Sided Window Openings - A Case Study

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the evaluation of different methods for calculation of air change rates due to natural ventilation through windows. Such estimations are of utmost importance for the studies, in which the influence of window operation on thermal comfort, air quality and building performance is to be addressed. Especially, to build accurate building performance models and to develop reliable building simulation scenarios, it is crucial to predict proper values of air exchange. A number of standards and recent scientific contributions present various models for the estimation of air change rates, whereby different sets of input parameters related to room and outdoor conditions are needed. The current contribution examines the reliability of calculated air change rates obtained via a number of widely used estimation methods for a case study room with single sided windows. To this end, a number of tracer gas measurements in a variety of window state settings were conducted, and the real air change rates were calculated based on the measured concentration decay of the tracer gas. Consequently, using the resulting measured and calculated values of air change rates, the reliability of estimation methods could be extensively explored.