Intelligent extraction ventilation for energy efficient residential ventilation
The project aims at ensuring a good energy efficient indoor climate in buildings with mechanical extrac-tion, by developing an extraction unit with wireless sensors, providing an intelligent demand-controlled ventilation.
The solution targets existing buildings, typically housing where establishing balanced ventilation with heat recovery is a challenge.
Studies show 25% heat savings and 50% electricity savings by changing the extraction with constant-air-exchange to demand-controlled extraction. The developed system provides significant energy savings.
The latest development in electronics, sensors, actuators, ICT, and battery technology will be used: The extraction vent is based on a principle ensuring modulating settings with minimized energy con-sumption covered by a rechargeable battery.
The settings are controlled by a number of wireless moisture/CO2 sensors to be positioned freely.
The goal is an easily mountable system, allowing the user to decide the indoor climate within a speci-fied comfort band via an iPhone App. The iPhone provides further opportunities for visualizing the in-door climate, including an alarm if RH exceeds i.e. 80%. The system allows for continuous monitoring of the indoor climate in a building, important for central control and optimal operation of heating and ventilation, and for the establishment of energy flexibility in interaction with hourly tariffs.
The aim of the project is to ensure a good energy-efficient indoor climate in existing multi story buildings with mechanical extraction. This is achieved by developing an intelligent, demand-controlled, plug-and-play exhaust valve/damper with wireless sensors that ensure proper ventilation according to the actual needs.
The solution is suitable for existing buildings where the establishment of balanced ventilation with heat recovery is not possible. The exhaust valve is developed based on a new principle, which ensures modulating setting with minimal energy consumption covered by a battery solution.
The setting of the fixture is controlled via interaction to / from the cloud with several wireless moisture sensors that can be freely placed in the rooms.
The project has developed a valve with actuator that controls according to the current moisture level and an associated motion sensor. The communication between valve and sensors was developed. However, it was a bigger task than initially assumed.
The goal was to have a battery life of 12 months. This has not been achieved on tested prototypes, because they didn’t have the sleep mode implemented. However, with further development – by programming the valves to be waken-up and act only if there is a significant change of humidity or change of presence, and the rest of the time being in a sleep mode, it will be possible to minimize the energy use and optimize the battery life-length to 330–360 days.
This development has not been done in the project period, but it could be done afterwards. It is planned that there will be a commercial finished product on the market. This work is beyond the project.
By managing the needs according to the current ventilation needs in relation to moisture in the home, the energy bill for heating the replacement air can be saved. Based on the results of the project, energy consumption for each dwelling can be reduced by at least 1/3.
By screening the building mass in Denmark, savings of 20 - 30% can be achieved on heat (2,250 GWh / year) and electricity (40 GWh) by demand controlled ventilation. The energy savings are due to a decrease in ventilation volumes. In addition, an electricity saving for operating the fan in the overall system.
The project ended in April 2020 and was developed in a collaboration between Teknologisk Institut, Lindab A/S og New Nordic Engineering.
Key figures
Category
Participants
| Partner | Subsidy | Auto financing |
|---|---|---|
| Lindab A/S | ||
| New Nordic Engineering |
