Experimentation: humidity controlled system in French collective buildings refurbishment

Résumé et principaux résultats

Publication à la 24e Conférence de l'AIVC, Washington D.C., USA, 12-14 October 2003.
In France, most of the public project managers have collective dwellings built in the 70's - 80's with "first generation" mechanical ventilation systems. These systems are not well perceived by the occupants who find them noisy, uncomfortable in winter and with a high energy consumption. To avoid these problems, most of the occupants do their own modifications (by blocking the trickle vents or stopping the system) which alters ventilation performances. Such changes lead to several negative consequences, including: health problems, uncomfortable climate, possible moistures in the rooms, etc. As part of an experimental project on 9 flats, a humidity controlled ventilation system has been installed to prevent the bad effects noted earlier. The originality of this system is to place additional humidity controlled trickle-vents in kitchens and a roof extract fan with a 24-hours clock timer for high speed (pre-set cycles). In order to evaluate the performances and the interest in that system, in situ monitoring of temperature, CO2 concentration, humidity, fan airflow rate was performed during two periods of 15 days with cold and mild climates.