Highly insulated crawl spaces with controlled minimal ventilation - Proof of concept by field measurements
2020 (English)In: E3S Web of Conferences. Volyme 172, 2020., EDP Sciences , 2020, article id 07004Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
In current practices crawl spaces are typically ventilated with outdoor air. This leads very often to high relative humidity especially in the beginning of the summer, which can be problematic if the excess humidity cannot be ventilated efficiently enough. This paper introduces a crawl space concept where the crawl space is highly insulated and traditional ventilation openings are replaced by minimal mechanical exhaust ventilation set by pressure difference with the aim to prevent potential pollutants to penetrate indoors through the base floor. The concept that has been developed based on the simulation study is tested in this study with field measurements in four single family houses. Continuous measurements of relative humidity and temperature in crawl spaces and outdoor air were running more than one year in each building. The results revealed that all the crawl spaces had very low relative humidity, mostly below 75% and for very short periods close to 80% even though some of the buildings were new and construction phase moisture was drying out. The results revealed that the crawl space concept studied provided an ultimate moisture safety and can be recommended for all buildings with wooden floor. © The Authors
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
EDP Sciences , 2020. article id 07004
Keywords [en]
Buildings, Moisture, Ventilation, Continuous measurements, High relative humidities, Low relative humidities, Mechanical exhausts, Pressure differences, Relative humidity and temperatures, Single-family house, Ventilation openings, Ventilation exhausts
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-45624DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/202017207004Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85088460375OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-45624DiVA, id: diva2:1458852
Conference
12th Nordic Symposium on Building Physics, NSB 2020, 6 September 2020 through 9 September 2020
Note
Funding details: 2014-2020.4.01.15-0016; Funding details: European Regional Development Fund, FEDER; Funding text 1: This research is based on measurements conducted by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (former SP) funded by Isolergrund, which are greatly acknowledged. This research was supported by the Finnish Association of Civil Engineers RIL and Estonian Centre of Excellence in Zero Energy and Resource Efficient Smart Buildings and Districts, ZEBE (grant No. 2014-2020.4.01.15-0016 funded by the European Regional Development Fund).
2020-08-182020-08-182023-05-25Bibliographically approved