Experimental performance investigation of natural, mechanical and hybrid ventilation in urban environment

An experimental investigation of the performance of natural, mechanical and hybrid ventilation systems was carried out in an urban measurement campaign during summer period 2002 in Athens, Greece. Three building apartments characterized by different geometry and located in two street canyons with different orientation were studied. The aim was to show the impact of the urban environment on the ventilation efficiency of natural and hybrid systems. The tracer gas decay method has been applied during the experimental procedures with one (N2O) and two tracer gases (N2O and SF6). Based on the results of air-exchange rates using multizone methods from a previous study, a further analysis is performed in the present work for the evaluation of the performance of different ventilation systems in urban conditions, with emphasis on the ventilation efficiency. A methodology to estimate the air-exchange efficiency, on the basis of room mean age of air, in multitracer gas experiments is introduced. In spite of the reduced wind speeds due to the canyon effect, appreciable ventilation rates can be obtained with natural ventilation, especially when cross-ventilation with two or more windows is measured. For single-sided ventilation or under calm conditions, hybrid ventilation has only a slight advantage over natural, either in terms of air-exchange rates or of air-exchange efficiencies.