The International                        UPDATED 28th May 2010
Journal of Ventilation
Published Quarterly www.ijovent.org.uk          Buy Journal  Online 

June 2010 Edition of the IJV now Published

IAQVEC 2010 The 7th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Energy Conservation in Buildings

August 15 - 18 2010  Syracuse, New York, USA

Paper 7:  Volume 5 No.2 Sept 2006 Edition

Infiltration of Outdoor Air in Two Newly Constructed High Rise Residential Buildings

K.S. Lam¹, D.W.T. Chan², E.H.W. Chan³, C.T. Tai³, W.Y. Fung¹ and K.C. Law²

¹Department of Civil and Structural Engineering,
²Department of Building Services Engineering,
³Department of Building and Real Estate,

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hung Hom, Kowloon , Hong Kong

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Abstract

The transmission of SARS in high rise residential buildings in Hong Kong has highlighted the importance of indoor environmental quality. One of the important parameters that requires investigation is natural ventilation. The air change per hour (ac/h) of living rooms was studied in two newly constructed vacant tall buildings in Hong Kong . The aim was to benchmark the air change rate of high rise residential buildings. The scope of the work covered the measurement of air change rate in living rooms under both natural ventilation and air conditioning operation. The air change rate was measured using sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) tracer gas. The results show that these concrete residential buildings are not airtight. When all windows and doors were closed, the mean background air change rate in the living room was about 0.36 ac/h. When a window type air conditioner was switched on, this was increased to about 0.74 ac/h. The background air change rate depends on building orientation. In fact there was no strong evidence showing that the background air change rate inside a tall building depends on height. The lift lobby could be a vital path of natural ventilation. It was concluded that other factors such as architectural design and local topography affects natural ventilation in high rise residential buildings.

Key words:  residential buildings, apartments, high rise, natural ventilation, air infiltration, tracer gas, air change rate.

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