Multi-objective methods for determining optimal ventilation rates in dwellings

The optimal ventilation rate in a dwelling is a trade-off between the requirement to minimize ventilation heat losses to help meet national greenhouse gas emission targets and the need to minimize adverse health impacts arising from exposure to cold temperatures and pollutants from indoor and outdoor origin. This paper presents approaches for exploring these trade-offs based on two implementations of multi-objective optimization that consider both energy efficiency and health impacts. Both methods aggregate the various performance criteria into a single criterion, but the first method monetizes the performance criteria, while the second method weights them in a more general way. Unlike in the monetization approach, the generalized multi-objective optimization approach is found to be robust against scaling of the health impacts and energy savings that is independent of the ventilation rate. As a result it is less sensitive to assumptions made in the models regarding heating system efficiency, absolute health burden level, and dwelling occupancy. It is however sensitive to assumptions regarding pollutant production rates and balance-point temperatures, which affect health impacts and energy savings in a way correlated with ventilation rate. A preliminary application of the methods to a typical UK flat and detached house finds that the optimal ventilation rate may vary with built form. Application of the generalized multi-objective optimization approach in which health impacts and energy savings are equally weighted, suggests an optimal annual average air change rate of 0.4/h for the detached house, and 0.7/h for the flat.