Towards sustainable, energy-efficient and healthy ventilation strategies in buildings: A review

Abstract

Energy demand has been increasing worldwide and the building sector represents a large percentage of global energy consumption. Therefore, promoting energy efficiency in buildings is essential. Among all building services, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are significantly responsible for building energy use. In HVAC, ventilation is the key issue for providing suitable Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), while it is also responsible for energy consumption in buildings. Thus, improving ventilation systems plays an important role not only in fostering energy efficiency in buildings, but also in providing better indoor climate for the occupants and decreasing the possibility of health issues in consequence. In the last decades, many energy-efficient ventilation methods are developed by researchers to mitigate energy consumption in buildings. This paper reviews scientific research and reports, as well as building regulations and standards, which evaluated, investigated and reported the development of energy-efficient methods for ventilation in buildings. Besides energy-efficient methods such as natural and hybrid ventilation strategies, occupants’ behaviours regarding ventilation, can also affect the energy demand in buildings. Therefore, the influence of occupants’ behaviour on the energy use and the correlation between ventilation and the occupants’ health and productivity were also considered. The review showed that ventilation is interrelated with many factors such as indoor and outdoor conditions, building characteristics, building application as well as users’ behaviour. Thus, it is concluded that many factors must be taken into account for designing energy-efficient and healthy ventilation systems. Moreover, it should be mentioned that utilizing hybrid ventilation in buildings integrated with suitable control strategies, to adjust between mechanical and natural ventilation, leads to considerable energy savings while an appropriate IAQ is maintained.