UNIT IV

VENTILATION and
FILTRATION

THE NEED FOR VENTILATION

The minimum amount of fresh air required for breathing purposes is really quite small
About 0.2 litres s^ -1 per person for comfort conditioning, however, it is insufficient to
supply this small amount of fresh air; other factors enter into consideration
And enough fresh air must be delivered to achieve the
1. Meeting the oxygen needs of the occupants.
2. The dilution of the odors present to a socially acceptable level.
3. The dilution of the concentration of carbon dioxide to a satisfactorily low level.
4. Minimizing the rise in air temperature in the presence of excessive sensible heat gains.
5. Pressurizing escape routes in order to prevent the spread of smoke in the event of a
fire.
6. Dealing with condensation.

Odours may be diluted to a socially acceptable level by the introduction of

odourless air from outside or by the use of activated carbon filters. The original
work on the use of fresh air for this purpose was done by Yaglou et al. in 1936. This
was based on research in American schools and it was found that the quantity of
outside air needed to give a satisfactory reduction of odours depended on the

number of people present and their standards of personal

hygiene. It was also found that odours disappeared more rapidly, with a given
ventilation rate, when there was more volume of the room for each person present.
(This is still inexplicable" it may be due to a chemical breakdown of the constituents
of the odours or to their adsorption at the room surfaces.) It was further evident
that increasing the air change rate gave diminishing

returns, the efficiency of odour decay reducing with an

increase in the rate because of a failure to scour the
whole room.

Yaglou was able to show that school children of average socioeconomic background required from 5.5 to 13.5 litres s ^-1 each as
the room volume per person decreased from 14 m 3 to 3 m 3, to
produce acceptable odour control. Sedentary adults of a similar
background needed rather less fresh air, namely, 3 to 12 litres s ^1 each.

The conclusion to be drawn is that although a dilution rate of 20 m

3 per cigarette is enough to give satisfactory conditions for the
average person this should be increased to 40 m 3 per cigarette to
cover 98 per cent of the population. A typical smoker in the UK
smokes an average of 1.3 cigarettes per hour but the figure is more
in the United States. There are differences in the composition of the
tobacco, the weight of the cigarette and the length of the stub
remaining but, nevertheless, it is possible to estimate the supply of
fresh air necessary to deal with a population of mixed smokers and
non-smokers.

EXAMPLE:
Calculate the fresh air ventilation rate needed for an office in the
UK,
(a) if everyone smokes
(b) if only 50 per cent of those present smoke. Take the necessary
dilution rate as 40 m 3 per cigarette to satisfy the comfort and
health of 98 per cent of the population.

ANSWER:
(1.3 cigarettes per h per person) (40 m3 per
cigarette) x 100
3600
(a)

= 14.4 litres S -1 per person.

(b)

If only half the people smoke this reduces to 7.2

litres s -1 per person.

Fanger (1988) proposed the use of a pollution balance in an

occupied space to establish an appropriate ventilation rate and
suggested the following equation.

Where

Fanger (1988) introduced the concepts of the olf (to express pollution) and the decipol
(to express the perception of air quality). They are defined as follows:
One olf is the pollution generated by a standard, sedentary, non-smoking person in a
state of thermal neutrality (comfort).
One decipol is the perceived quality of air in a space wherein the pollution source
strength
is one olf and the ventilation rate with clean outdoor air is 10 litres s -1 (i.e. 1 decipol =
0.1 olf/litres s^-l). The pollution generated by a smoker is 6 olf and interpolation is
allowed for mixed populations of smokers and non-smokers.
The equation applies to the steady state and if the flesh air supplied mixes completely
with the air in the room then the value of the ventilation effectiveness factor, ev, is
1.0. If some of the air supplied short circuits and does not mix with the room air then
the value of ev is defined by European Concerted Action (1992) as