Comparison of Energy Savings in Residential Building Ventilation with and without Heat Recovery

People's awareness of the importance of negative environmental impacts caused by inefficient construction is increasing. For this reason, trends in the construction industry are increasingly moving towards energy-efficient construction, where high operating costs do not arise. The end result is savings in monthly heating costs, especially in winter, when temperature differences between interior spaces and the external environment are large.

Problem

People's awareness of the importance of negative environmental impacts caused by inefficient construction is increasing. For this reason, trends in the construction industry are increasingly moving towards energy-efficient construction, where high operating costs do not arise. Because of this, the materials used are also better, as they retain more heat that would otherwise be transferred to the environment in the form of energy losses.

The approach with airtight materials also has its negative aspects, as this makes the space almost impermeable, which can negatively affect their health and well-being. In such spaces, excessive values of hazardous gases and other chemical substances can begin to accumulate, which can affect their health in the form of acute or chronic problems. Air quality deteriorates in the absence of ventilation, and with it the living conditions deteriorate, which are measured in ** comfort of living, productivity, relaxation and human mood**.

From the need to improve air quality, ventilation systems have appeared on the market that operate on the principle of forced or mechanical ventilation. The advantage of mechanical ventilation is in the automation of the system, as it regulates itself when and how much ventilation is needed. Other positive characteristics of this form of ventilation are in the personalisation of the construction, as one can adapt the matter according to their own needs.

It is important that we choose a device that is quiet, consumes little energy and is, if possible, capable of retaining the heat of the polluted air that leaves the interior spaces during ventilation and is replaced with fresh, cold air from the surroundings of the building. Ventilation devices that are capable of retaining larger amounts of heat have a built-in heat recovery unit. This is a mechanism that in principle manages to retain the heat of the exhaust air that leaves the building during ventilation and heats the fresh air coming from outside.

As will be discovered in the following chapters of this diploma thesis, some heat recovery units are capable of retaining even more than 90 % of the heat. In this way, we manage to combine the advantages of high airtightness of modern construction materials with efficient building ventilation that does not cause additional heat and energy losses.

Results

The end result is savings in monthly heating costs, especially in winter, when temperature differences between interior spaces and the external environment are large.