Abstract
The paper focuses on the energetic and economic profitability of demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) strategies implemented in a decentralized ventilation application for tertiary office buildings.DCV consents to modulate the ventilation rate over time and meet the ventilation demand of the zone minimizing the energypenalty of overventilation. Its cost-effectiveness is however not always guaranteed, since it depends on buildings use, climate, HVAC features and it should be assessed for each application .Numerical simulations are carried out for a set of representative European climates to compare the effectiveness of three sensorbased demand-controlled ventilation strategies with a baseline control strategy. To this end, numerical models of the reference zone and the ventilation unit are developed in TRNSYS and the occupancy profile is defined with a stochastic approach to provide a more realistic user behavior.It is found that the energy savings (heating, cooling and fan energy consumption) achieved with sensor-based demand-controlled ventilation are very limited for the selected application in all scenarios. Energy efficiency measures – such as the use of a highefficiency heat recovery unit, the exploitation of free cooling or the installation of an high-performance ventilation unit – can significantly limit the energy savings achieved with DCV.