night and day ventilation team Specification Validation Conclusion


NEW AND TRADITIONAL PROBLEMS

Realisation
In order to achieve a good spatial execution of two-dimensional drawings within the nowadays-usual technical communication, a translation is needed more and more between spoken and written specifications. The understanding between the various nationalities on building sites is a new phenomenon in the European Community. The control-system, the different installation manuals, communication with end-users and the reporting of technical failures are no standard procedures so far. The adjustment conform performance measurements is not always feasible.
Airstreams turn out to be naughty, like children; they do not always follow the designed direction and velocities are difficult to measure. Temperatures are measurable, but there is the distinction between air temperatures and more perceptible radiation temperatures, and the average of the two is the temperature we feel.

It is very important for the wellbeing of the inhabitants / users of the building in later stages, that forced ventilation is used in new buildings that still have to dry out, smell like wet concrete, radon gases, paint and synthetic carpeting.




Use and Maintenance
When everything has gone well, a long period of use and maintenance follows. According to research (De Haas / T.N.O. 2003) it appears that heat exchangers in houses with balanced ventilation are hardly maintained and get clogged up with dust eventually.
It also appears that almost two-thirds of mechanical ventilation as prescribed in the regulations is not achieved in almost new draught-free built houses without opening windows.

In general the average user has no idea of technical installations. In large buildings, which are mechanically ventilated, the sick building syndrome is a well-known phenomenon. People feel locked up in non-compliant technology. These complaints are sufficiently remedied by the opening of windows, but the question arises: don't we have to look for fundamentally different ventilation systems?