Performance evaluation of humidity controlled ventilation strategies in residential buildings

A high-performance low-energy ventilation system needs to combine two opposite demands: an adequate air flow rate for a satisfactory IAQ and a minimal air flow rate to reduce ventilation heat loss. This research highlights Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and energy use in residential buildings where humidity controlled ventilation is applied. How does moisture buffering affect the performance, and how much energy can be saved by using this control strategy? The savings in heating energy associated with humidity controlled ventilation and the exposure to pollutants are benchmarked with the multizone airflow network model CONTAM. These simulations are carried out on a detached residential building with extraction ventilation and selfregulating air inlets. This study determines the potential energy savings due to humidity controlled ventilation while the IAQ is compared to the mandatory standards concerning CO2 and relative humidity.