Tracer gas techniques for quantifying the air change rate in churches – field investigation experiences

Two different tracer gas techniques for quantifying the air change rate were tested in three naturally ventilated churches. The techniques were the decay method (or tracer gas dilution method) and a passive tracer gas method. It appeared that the room air in the studied churches tended to be fairly well mixed when the churches are heated, presumably due to strong natural convection air currents occurring at heat sources and cooler outer building surfaces. This seems to entail that both the decay and the passive method are fairly easy to apply during times of heating. It then doesn’t seem to matter much were the tracer gas is injected or where it is sampled. During non-heating periods, however, spatial differences in tracer gas concentrations were observed, making tracer gas measurements more difficult to perform.