Commission and performance contracting of ventilation systems in practice. Determination, analyses and consequences for practitioners and contractors

Traditionally ventilation systems in the Netherlands are installed in new or retrofitted buildings by an installation fitter under the responsibility of a contractor. In some cases but certainly not all cases, it is checked by a consultant if the ventilation system performs according to the design. Studies in the Netherlands show that ventilation systems of dwellings often don’t meet the designated Standards. Deviations are found in airflow rates, noise from the ventilation system and malfunctioning due to lacking air tightness of the building envelope. Other European countries are struggling with similar quality issues.
In offices and apartment buildings there are several initiatives to improve the performance of ventilation systems. For example by the use of Energy Performance Contracts. In these projects there is an increased attention for quality control in the installation and operational phases. Since a couple of years there are initiatives with performance contracts also in dwellings. An example is the energy efficient retrofitting of dwellings repaid via the energy bill in “Stroomversnelling”. As a result of this driver of performance contracting, several initiatives have sprung up to support quality control of ventilation systems in dwellings, through new test instruments, ICT solutions and training. In the SecureVent project easy to handle methods for installation fitters are being developed to check the performance of a ventilation system regarding air flow distribution, noise and airtightness with good accuracy. Instruments which will soon be on the market are presented. Within the Energy leap “Stroomversnelling” program an API (Application Programming Interface) has been developed allowing standardized communication between on the one hand an external database and on the other hand sensors and installation in a dwelling. This allows an easy check on performance of the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Energy use, both for housing corporations and occupants. In the Horizon2020 Sphere project this kind of interfaces will be used to build a digital representation (Digital Twin) of a dwelling based on monitoring data. It will be used to check the performance on IEQ and Energy use during the lifespan of a dwelling. It is important that the craftsmen installing the ventilation system have ample knowledge and skills to check its performance during construction and commissioning. To this end, in the Newcom project a European training program is being developed to help the craftsmen involved to acquire the required skills to obtain better performing ventilation systems.