BUILDING REGULATIONS AND VENTILATION

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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. 2. To supply fresh air for the occupants To change the air in the room sufficiently so that smells, fumes and contaminants are removed.

Ventilation Rates in CIBSE 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 Assembly halls Atria Broadcasting studios Call centres Catering (inc. commercial kitchens) Cleanrooms Communal residential buildings Computer rooms Court rooms Darkrooms (photographic) Dealing rooms Dwellings (inc. high-rise dwellings) Factories and warehouses High-rise (non-domestic) buildings Horticulture Hospitals and health care buildings Hotels Industrial ventilation Laboratories Museums, libraries and art galleries Offices Plant rooms Schools and educational buildings Shops and retail premises Sports centres (inc. swimming pools)

Section number
3.24.1 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.24.2 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.24.3 3.24.4 3.24.5 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.24.6 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.2 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21

Recommendations
See Table 3.20 See Table 3.6 See section 3.4.3 6 -10ACH (but heat gain should be assessed) 4 - 6 ACH (but heat gain should be assessed) 30 - 40 ACH See Tables 3.11 and 3.12 0.5 - 1 ACH See Table 3.13 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) 0.5 - 1 ACH See 3.11.1 for regulatory requirements 4 - 6 ACH for office areas; up to 10ACH for meeting space. 30 - 50 litres/s/m2 for greenhouses (45 - 60 ACH) See Table 3.15 10 - 15 ACH minimum for guest rooms with en-suite bathrooms Sufficient to minimise airborne contamination 6 - 15 ACH (allowance must be made for fume cupboards) Depends on nature of exhibits See Tables 3.2 and 3.3 Specific regulations apply, see section 3.18 See Table 3.18 5 - 8 litres/s per person See Table 3.19

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Standards rooms

3.24.7

45 - 60 ACH Building Regulations apply; opening windows of area 1/20th of floor area or mechanical ventilation at 6 litres/s per WC or 3 ACH minimum for non-domestic buildings; opening windows area 1/20th of floor area (1/30th in Scotland) or mechanical extract at 6 litres/s (3 ACH in Scotland) minimum for dwellings. 6 ACH for car parks (normal operation) 10 ACH (fire conditions)

Toilets

3.22

Transportation buildings (inc. carparks)

3.23

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 Minimum ventilation requirement Litres /s per person 0.5% CO2 limit 0.25% CO2 limit
0.8 1.3 2.6 2.6 3.9 3.9 5.3 5.3 6.4 1.8 2.8 5.6 N/A N/A N/A

Seated quietly Light work Moderate work Heavy work Very heavy work

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 No smoking Some smoking Heavy smoking Very heavy smoking The table below is an extract from Table 3.6 and gives rates for Assembly Halls and Auditoria Design Requirements : Assembly halls and auditoria Parameter Fresh air ventilation rates Design requirement To suit occupancy levels 3 4 air changes per hour for displacement strategy 6 10 air changes per hour for high level mechanical strategy Outdoor air supply rate (litre/s per person) 8 16 24 36

Air change rate

Ventilation Calculations
The following formulae may be used:

1. For General Mechanical Ventilation

Ventilation rate (m3/h) = Air Change Rate (/h) x Room Volume (m3)

Air Change Rate (/h) comes from CIBSE Guide B2 Table 3.1 Ventilation rate (m3/s) = Ventilation rate (m3/h) / 3600

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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.

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