Publications / 2017 Proceedings of the 34rd ISARC, Taipei, Taiwan
Hybrid ventilation, or mixed mode ventilation, is a technique that uses a mixture of natural and mechanical ventilation for maintaining a thermally comfortable indoor environment for building occupants. With its potential for improving both the energy efficiency and occupants comfort at the same time, its real application benefits across different US climate zones are still not clear, especially considering the possible variations of building context and building properties in real scenarios. In this paper, by taking these uncertainties into account, we have investigated the potential of utilizing hybrid ventilation on small to medium size commercial buildings across different US climate zones. One prototypical small to medium size office building was selected first. Uncertainties related to meteorology, building microclimate, building properties and operation have been applied for a thorough investigation of hybrid ventilation potential based on our baseline building. Currently, four climate zones with possibly largest potential for hybrid ventilation were selected in our investigation. The results showed that on average energy saving could range from 15% to 40%. In addition to this, in almost all the cases, the ventilation rate could increase by more than 10 times in natural ventilation hours compared to mechanical ventilation, which has proven to be beneficial for both occupants health and productivity.