Ventilation rates in European office buildings: A review

Abstract

The current review creates, for the first time, a comprehensive dataset of ventilation rates measured in European office buildings. This dataset can provide input to modelling studies. A review of the current status of ventilation standards and regulations for office buildings is also presented, as a reference. The review shows that the availability of measurements of ventilation rates in European offices is limited. Measurements have been carried out mainly in the Nordic and Western European countries and recently in Southern Europe. The limited data on a country level present variability and hence cannot be considered as representative, given the small number of measurements. Furthermore, due to the various measurement techniques that are used, it is not always possible to compare the results from the measurements with the existing regulations. In the case that a comparison is allowed, the mechanically ventilated (MV) buildings are over-ventilated (mean: 18 L s−1 person−1, range: 4.5 –55 L s−1 person−1), compared with the national regulations and the value of 10 L s−1 person−1, which several studies propose to decrease the prevalence of symptoms of sick building syndrome. However, when compared against the same metrics, naturally ventilated (NV) offices are under-ventilated (NV range: 0.1 –1.8 ach; MV range: 0.5–5 ach).