ASHRAE Journal - March 2020 - 70

RESIDENTIAL APPLICATIONS
COLUMN

Progress and Challenges

Residential
Ventilation Systems

BY MICHAEL LUBLINER, MEMBER ASHRAE; IAIN WALKER, PH.D., MEMBER ASHRAE; CHRISSI ANTONOPOULOS, STUDENT MEMBER ASHRAE; C. METZGER, ASSOCIATE MEMBER ASHRAE;
ERIC MARTIN

Historically, homes were not designed to include whole-house mechanical ventilation. Residential building envelopes were so leaky that considerable natural air
exchange occurred without mechanical ventilation systems. As homes have become
tighter to save energy and provide better comfort, mechanical ventilation has become
necessary to ensure enough fresh air is supplied to maintain acceptable indoor air
quality (IAQ). As these systems become commonplace, various improvements and
updates have been made to ASHRAE Standard 62.2, and the industry has identiﬁed
areas of potential improvement when specifying, designing, installing and operating
residential ventilation systems.
This column provides a summary of the state of
the art in residential ventilation based on two recent
ﬁeld research studies focused on measuring IAQ in
mechanically ventilated homes. The results of these
studies are being used to help address future changes
to both ASHRAE Standard 62.2 and industry practice, to
improve residential ventilation and IAQ.
Since the 1980s, residential building energy efﬁciency and IAQ ﬁeld research have aimed at improving
both energy efﬁciency and IAQ in U.S homes. Resulting
advancements include improved energy-efﬁcient
windows, insulation, domestic hot water, space conditioning equipment and an integrated approach to
enclosure and HVAC system design known as "build
tight, ventilate right" (BTVR). BTVR is based on the
principles that tighter dwellings require signiﬁcantly
less energy for space conditioning, and they provide
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ASHRAE JOURNAL

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MARCH 2020

occupants a more comfortable indoor environment
with controlled whole-house mechanical ventilation,
compared to leakier dwellings with only operable
windows for ventilation. BTVR is employed in voluntary energy-efﬁciency new construction programs
such as ENERGY STAR Certiﬁed Homes, DOE's Zero
Energy Ready Homes, Passive House, and prescriptive
requirements such as International Codes (I-codes)
and any jurisdiction that requires compliance with
ASHRAE Standard 62.2. Challenges identiﬁed in early
program implementation of BTVR resulted in wide
industry adoption of improved building materials
Michael Lubliner is senior building science specialist and energy specialist for the
Washington State University Energy Program in Olympia, Wash. Iain Walker, Ph.D.,
is staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif. Chrissi
Antonopoulos is analyst, and C. Metzger is senior mechanical engineer at Paciﬁc
Northwest National Laboratory, Portland, Ore. Eric Martin is program director at Florida
Solar Energy Center, Cocoa, Fla.

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ASHRAE Journal - March 2020

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