Ventilation

Introduction
The process by which fresh air is introduced and contaminated air is
removed from an occupied space is termed ventilation.

Purposes of Ventilation
The purposes of ventilation are:
1.
To provide a continuous supply of oxygen necessary for human
existence.
2.

To remove the products of respiration and occupation.

3.

To remove contaminants such as:

water vapour
heat and smells from cooking
gases and vapours from industrial processes.

At rest a normal adult inhales between 0.10 and 0.12 litre/s of air.
The exhaled breath contains between 3% and 4% of carbon dioxide, which is
equal to 0.003 to 0.005 litre/s.
The amount of heat from occupants is about 100 Watts sensible and 40 watts
latent heat from a sedentary worker.
The amount of moisture produced by a sedentary person is about 59g of
water vapour per hour.

Typical Ventilation System

A typical plant layout is shown below.

The photograph below shows a typical ventilation fan.

Ventilation Rates
The building regulations require those habitable rooms and toilets are to be
vented by natural or mechanical means.

Natural Ventilation
A habitable room requires one or more ventilation openings, the total area of
which must not be less than 1/20 th. of the floor area of the room, and some
part of the opening must be more than 1.7 metres above floor level.
When ventilation is by mechanical means, one air change per hour must be
provided to habitable rooms and three air changes per hour to bathrooms and
kitchens.

Design Criteria
To design a ventilation system, the engineer has to meet two basic
requirements:
1.

To supply fresh air for the occupants

2.

To change the air in the room sufficiently so that smells, fumes and
contaminants are removed.

Ventilation Rates in CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building

Services Engineer, UK) guide
The following table gives Ventilation Rates for buildings.
Table 3.1 CIBSE Guide B2 (2001) Summary of recommendations
(Extract from Table)

Building sector
Animal husbandry

Section
number

Recommendations

3.24.1

See Table 3.20

Assembly halls

3.3

See Table 3.6

Atria

3.4

See section 3.4.3

Broadcasting studios

3.5

6 -10ACH (but heat gain should be assessed)

3.24.2

4 - 6 ACH (but heat gain should be assessed)

Call centres
Catering (inc.
commercial kitchens)

3.6

30 - 40 ACH

Cleanrooms

3.7

See Tables 3.11 and 3.12

Communal
residential buildings

3.8

0.5 1 ACH

Computer rooms

3.9

See Table 3.13

Court Rooms

3.24.3

Darkrooms
(photographic)

3.24.4

Dealing rooms

3.24.5

Dwellings (inc. highrise dwellings)

Factories and
warehouses
High-rise (nondomestic) buildings
Hospitals and health
care buildings

As for typically naturally ventilated

buildings
6 10 ACH (but heat gain should be
assessed)
As offices for ventilation (but heat gain
should be assessed)

3.10

0.5 1 ACH

3.11

See 3.11.1 for regulatory requirements

3.12

4 6 ACH for office areas; up to 10ACH for

meeting space.

3.13

See Table 3.15

Hotels

3.14

Industrial ventilation

3.15

10 15 ACH minimum for guest rooms with

en-suite bathrooms
Sufficient to minimise airborne
contamination

Contd
Building sector

Section
number

Recommendations

Laboratories

3.16

6 15 ACH (allowance must be made for

fume cupboards)

Museums, libraries
and art galleries

3.17

Depends on nature of exhibits

Offices

3.2

See Tables 3.2 and 3.3

Plant rooms

3.18

Specific regulations apply, see section 3.18

3.19

See Table 3.18

3.20

5 8 litres/s per person

3.21

See Table 3.19

3.22

..Mechanical ventilation 6 litres/s per

WC or 3 ACH minimum for non-domestic
buildings.

Schools and
educational buildings
Shops and retail
premises
Sports centres (inc.
swimming pools)
Toilets

The Table below gives Ventilation rates required to limit CO2 concentration
where level of activity is known.

Table 3.2 CIBSE Guide B2 (2001) Ventilation rates required to limit CO2
concentration for differing activity levels
Activity

Seated quietly

Minimum ventilation requirement

Litres /s per person
0.5% CO2 limit
0.25% CO2 limit
0.8

1.8

Light work

1.3 2.6

2.8 5.6

Moderate work

2.6 3.9

N/A

Heavy work

3.9 5.3

N/A

Very heavy work

5.3 6.4

N/A

The following table gives fresh air rates.

Table 3.3 CIBSE Guide B2 (2001) Recommended outdoor air supply rates
for sedentary occupants.
Level of Smoking

Outdoor air supply rate

(litre/s per person)

No smoking
Some smoking
Heavy smoking
Very heavy smoking

8
16
24
36

Ventilation Calculations
The following formulae may be used:
1. For General Mechanical Ventilation
Ventilation rate (m3/h) =
Volume (m3)

Air Change Rate (/h) x Room

Air Change Rate (/h) comes from CIBSE Guide B2 Table 3.1
Ventilation rate (m3/s) =

Ventilation rate (m3/h) / 3600

2. For Calculating Fresh Air Ventilation Rates

Fresh Air Rate (m3/s) =
Fresh Air rate per person (l/s/p)
x
number of occupants
Fresh Air rate per person (l/s/p) comes from CIBSE Guide B2 Table 3.3.

Ventilation Systems
Natural ventilation cannot be relied upon to always provide enough fresh air
to meet requirements.
Also more control can be obtained by using fans to supply air to a space or
to remove contaminated air from a space.
Some mechanical ventilation systems use fans for both supplying and
extracting air, thus mechanical ventilation systems may be classified as
follows:
1.

Supply system

2.

Extract system

3.

Balanced system.

1. Supply Ventilation System

Fresh air is supplied to a space from outside as shown below; this air
provides oxygen for breathing and ventilation for occupants. Air is removed
from the space by natural means since the room is pressurised by the
supply air.

In some cases it is advantageous to heat incoming air to offset fabric losses

and avoid cold draughts in winter.
This is known as a plenum system and is useful in large rooms with a high
ceiling, which can be difficult to heat with radiators.

Extract Ventilation System

The principal function of an extract ventilation system is the removal of an
unwanted contaminant, whether it is solid, gaseous or thermal.
Air is extracted from the space and replaced by fresh air entering from
outside; the space is under negative pressure, therefore air is naturally
drawn into the building as shown below.

The photograph below shows a typical domestic extract hood.

In industrial ventilation, airborne dust, toxic fumes, vapours and excessive

heat have to be removed. This is sometimes carried out at source, thus
minimising the contamination of the occupied space. The spread of
contaminant is decreased by installing hoods or canopies over the source and
connecting these to the extract ventilation system as shown below.

The photograph below shows a typical commercial kitchen extract canopy.

Kitchen Extract

In kitchen extract ventilation it may be necessary to install a fire damper and

enclose the duct which passes through upper floors in a fire resisting shaft..
This is because there is a possible danger of fire and smoke spreading
throughout a building in the ductwork system.
Obviously when designing for the event of a fire in the building one should
be careful to provide a safe and protective ventilation installation. Consult
all relevant standards and get as much advice as possible especially from the
local Fire Authority.
A simple extract system for a kitchen is shown below.

The photograph below shows a typical commercial kitchen extract canopy

incorporating lights and removable grease filters.

3. Balanced Ventilation Systems

A balanced system enables full control of ventilation to be achieved by the
use of separate mechanical supply and extract systems. It is usual to provide
a surplus of supply air over extract air so as to maintain the pressure in the
building at a slightly higher pressure than outside.
This minimises natural infiltration which reduces the likelihood of
draughts.
A typical system is shown below:

It is a good idea to filter outside air so that atmospheric pollutants are

excluded.
Also in winter, cold outside air may cause discomfort so the fresh air is
heated. This can be used to offset heat losses thus providing the means of
heating the building or room as shown below.
This is the same as a plenum heating system with return air system.

In most balanced systems, the supply air quantity, which is required, works
out to be much more than that needed for fresh air supply to occupants. It is
possible therefore, to recirculate some of the extract air back into the supply
duct to make use of the heat which it contains as shown below.

The amounts of fresh air in each section of ductwork are controlled by

dampers, which can be set during commissioning so that the design quantity
of air with the correct proportion of fresh air is supplied to the space.
Recirculation only works if the air has not been contaminated in the space.
In kitchens, toilets, smoke filled spaces, etc., where the air contains odours
or other contaminants all the extract air is removed and no recirculation
takes place.
Filters are usually fitted in supply and balanced ventilation systems to
remove any airborne particles in the fresh air intake duct. A finer filter may
be installed in a balanced ventilation system after the mix point to remove
dust generated within the space.

The photographs below show typical filters. The bag filters are for collecting
fine particles of dust and are sometimes referred to as fine filters.