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I live in a 1950s Swedish apartment house. Our main ventilation is an adjustable vent/hole in the wall, so just completely passive. I feel like there is consta

I live in a 1950s Swedish apartment house. Our main ventilation is an adjustable vent/hole in the wall, so just completely passive. I feel like there is constant lüften going on with that, and wonder if such building standards explain why we don't have the same habits as the German one.

t0mas88 4y ago
Similar with the building rules in the Netherlands. Houses must have passive ventilaton in each (bed)room, and some system to create at least a certain amount of airflow based on the size of the house. Simplest way is passive vents on the windows and a central blow-out fan that pulls air in. The more modern way uses a heatexchanger setup to take heat from the outflowing air and use it to warm air being pumped into the house.
- samus 4y ago
  I recently visited the German Bundestag. The distinctive glass dome on top of it contains a giant ventilation shaft for the plenary room, along with heat exchangers to recover the heat. The exhibition didn't state it, but I presume the incoming air is warmed up this way.
Sharlin 4y ago
This arrangement is called gravity, or buoyancy-driven, ventilation; warm air rises and generates an updraft in a central ventilation conduit connected to an outlet vent in each unit. The replacement air is “sucked in” through an inlet, also in each apartment. It’s used in multi-story buildings everywhere, but it’s not as effective in lowrises. It can be boosted by having mechanical ventilation equipment on the roof – a rooftop ventilator – pulling air through the exhaust flue more effectively, and modern apartment buildings typically have this type of mechanical ventilation. (So even if your apartment only has a passive vent in the wall, that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire system is passive!) Today, the inlets may also be centralized; this allows for replacement air to be taken from wherever it’s the cleanest, eg. from the side not adjacent to a street. The air can also be filtered to improve its quality and even pre-heated to make heating more efficient and prevent the feeling of a draft.

t0mas88 4y ago

Similar with the building rules in the Netherlands. Houses must have passive ventilaton in each (bed)room, and some system to create at least a certain amount of airflow based on the size of the house. Simplest way is passive vents on the windows and a central blow-out fan that pulls air in. The more modern way uses a heatexchanger setup to take heat from the outflowing air and use it to warm air being pumped into the house.

samus 4y ago
I recently visited the German Bundestag. The distinctive glass dome on top of it contains a giant ventilation shaft for the plenary room, along with heat exchangers to recover the heat. The exhibition didn't state it, but I presume the incoming air is warmed up this way.

Sharlin 4y ago

This arrangement is called gravity, or buoyancy-driven, ventilation; warm air rises and generates an updraft in a central ventilation conduit connected to an outlet vent in each unit. The replacement air is “sucked in” through an inlet, also in each apartment. It’s used in multi-story buildings everywhere, but it’s not as effective in lowrises. It can be boosted by having mechanical ventilation equipment on the roof – a rooftop ventilator – pulling air through the exhaust flue more effectively, and modern apartment buildings typically have this type of mechanical ventilation. (So even if your apartment only has a passive vent in the wall, that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire system is passive!) Today, the inlets may also be centralized; this allows for replacement air to be taken from wherever it’s the cleanest, eg. from the side not adjacent to a street. The air can also be filtered to improve its quality and even pre-heated to make heating more efficient and prevent the feeling of a draft.