Different ventilation methods and their impact on energy consumption for heating a kindergarten

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the influence of two different ventilation methods (Method 1 and Method 3), defined according to the standard EN 16798, on the predicted heating consumption of a kindergarten in the city of Kragujevac (Serbia). Ventilation requirements of the Method 1 are based on people occupancy data. For that reason, the effect of different people occupancy schedules, real, average yearly and maximum occupancy schedules, on the prediction of the energy behavior of the selected building was analyzed. The Method 3 is characterized by a constant value of fresh air flow rate, determined by the volume of the ventilated room (0.5 ach). The obtained simulation results indicate that in the Method 1 the heating consumption increases with the increase of the fresh air flow rate or the number of people in the building. In contrast, with a constant amount of fresh air (Method 3), heating consumption decreases with the increase of the number of people. It has been shown that the use of the maximum people occupancy schedule gives the largest error in predicting the heating consumption (up to 11.38%), regardless of the ventilation method. For the average yearly occupancy schedule, the error ranges up to 3.90%. According to the presented results, in order to bring the predicted energy behavior of the building closer to its actual behavior, it is recommended to use the real people occupancy schedule. The maximum occupancy schedule, in any case, should be avoided.