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Page count: 54

CMHC initiated a research project to develop and demonstrate prescriptive guidelines for simple, effective, low-cost ventilation systems. This project looked at the systems developed for houses heated by baseboard or radiant heating systems. The project evaluated the performance (air flow, noise, energy consumption, etc.) of three ventilation systems employed in five test houses in Nova Scotia. The systems consisted of: two exhaust-only systems; two ducted heat recovery ventilation (HRV) systems; and one balanced supply/recirculation/exhaust system. Two ventilation system control strategies were also developed and evaluated. All five ventilation systems were found to be relatively easy to design and install. The occupants of the houses provided with the exhaust-only and HRV systems were satisfied with the performance of the systems. Tracer gas decay tests of the house with the exhaust-only system showed that the system could induce the overall air change rate required by the 1990 National Building Code. The balanced supply/recirculation/exhaust system caused occupant comfort problems due to insufficient tempering of incoming fresh air. The noise generated by the ventilation systems was generally within ASHRAE guidelines. The time-of-day control strategy was preferred to the outdoor temperature strategy of most occupants because of its effectiveness, predictability and automatic operation. Occupants reacted negatively to the temperature controller citing irregular and less effective o.