A person uses more than 12,000 liters of air to breathe every day. But what is the role of the ventilation system in this? In a world where we spend more than 90% of our time indoors, the importance of ventilation becomes even more prominent.

But the first question is, what is ventilation? How can we understand that the ventilation is working properly? If not, how can we improve it? What types of ventilation are there in the building?

Ventilation

Ventilation acts as the lungs of the building. It is the process of moving outside air into a building or room and distributing it to the area. Clean air dilutes indoor polluted air and also replaces some of the polluted air. The main purpose of ventilation is to prepare healthy air for people to breathe in that place.

5 types of ventilation

The 5 types of ventilation include:

Natural ventilation
Mechanical Ventilation
Hybrid Ventilation
Spot Ventilation
Air conditioning (TAC)

Regardless of your building's use and where your heating, cooling, and ventilation systems are located, you should consider one of these five types of ventilation systems for your building.

Natural ventilation

Natural or conventional ventilation systems depend on natural forces such as wind and thermal buoyancy to drive outside air through the building's outlets. Three factors play a role in making natural ventilation work. These factors are climate, human behavior and building design.

When designing a building, the designer includes doors, windows, solar chimneys, wind towers, etc. should provide some targeted openings such as If these openings work properly, the natural ventilation system helps reduce energy consumption by 20-25 percent.

When talking about natural ventilation, you can think of simply opening the windows of the room. However, it is more complicated than it seems. In some special places where outdoor pollution is more than indoor, natural ventilation can work in reverse. It will not only ventilate the air in the room, but also pollute it. Polluted air can enter the building through openings and can put our health at risk. Since there is no strict control when using natural ventilation, it is replaced by mechanical ventilation in most cases.

Mechanical Ventilation

Mechanical ventilators provide mechanical ventilation. A mechanical ventilation system can be installed directly on windows or walls, in air ducts to supply air to or from the room.

The type of mechanical ventilation used depends on the weather conditions. For example, in hot and humid climates, interstitial compression (when hot, humid air is forced into a wall, ceiling, or floor from inside a cold-surfaced building) may need to be minimized or prevented rather than prevented. In these cases, a positive pressure mechanical ventilation system is often used. Conversely, in cold climates, exfiltration should be avoided and negative pressure ventilation should be used to prevent interstitial condensation. A negative pressure system is often used for a room with locally produced contaminants such as a bathroom, toilet or kitchen.

In a positive pressure system, the room is under positive pressure and room air escapes through a leak or other opening in the envelope. In a negative pressure system, the ground is under negative pressure and room air is compensated by blowing outside air.

Hybrid Ventilation

Among the different types of ventilation, Hybrid ventilation (mixed mode) depends on natural driving forces to produce the desired flow rate (design flow rate). When natural ventilation has a very low flow rate, the role of mechanical ventilation is prominent.

If natural ventilation alone is not acceptable, exhaust fans can be installed to increase the ventilation rate. There is a fair amount of pre-testing and planning involved in making them work properly.

An example of a mixed regime is the rooms where patients with airborne infection are located. However, this simple type of combined ventilation (mixed mode) should be used with caution. Fans should be installed in places where the room air can escape directly to the outside environment through the wall or ceiling. The amount of intended vented air determines the size and number of exhaust fans that must be measured and tested before use.

Spot Ventilation

Another type of ventilation is spot ventilation. Spot ventilation was created to increase the efficiency of both natural and mechanical ventilation systems. In other words, it is better to say that it is an auxiliary system. This involves the placement of local exhaust fans, such as those used in bathrooms or kitchens. It eliminates moisture and indoor air pollution at its source, ultimately increasing the efficiency of the ventilation system.

Air Conditioning (TAC)

Work environment