Ventilation intensity in a high-rise building after complete retrofit of its envelope

Abstract

Retrofit of the old building stock presents a good possibility to reduce the energy consumption. However, as the envelopes of old buildings become tighter, a risk increases that the fresh outside air supplied to the indoor environment by natural infiltration can decrease below the amounts required for a comfortable indoor environment, especially in buildings where mechanical ventilation has not been installed. This study presents an efficient method to measure the ventilation intensity, demonstrated on a 40-years old high-rise office building after a complete envelope retrofit. The well-established tracer gas decay and tracer gas step-up method were employed to obtain the ventilation intensity, using the natural CO2 produced by the occupants as the tracer gas. The measured values of the air change rate were between 0.1 and 0.7 1/h for the simple facade, whereas it ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 1/h for the double skin facade, with the windows closed. The level of compliance with ventilation requirements varied, d...