Thermal Displacement Ventilation (TDV) in Schools: Improving Indoor Air Quality and Saving Energy

Andrey Livchak and Zeqiang Sun, Halton Company
Charles Eley, John Arent, and Vern Smith, Architectural Energy Corporation

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Abstract

Thermal displacement ventilation (TDV) is a promising technology for schools and other buildings. The potential energy efficiency, health, and acoustic benefits offer promise as California and other states prepare to spend billions on new schools and major modernization. This paper presents some results from a PIER-funded study of the technology evaluated with computational fluid dynamics and full-scale model testing.

In 1995, the Government Accounting Office concluded that 25% of the nation’s schools are plagued by indoor air quality (IAQ) problems. A few years later the Environmental Protection Agency (Johnston & Davis 2001) reported an even higher percentage of schools having IAQ problems. Most of these IAQ problems can be attributed to poor ventilation. TDV, which has been used since the late 1980s in Northern Europe and only more recently in U.S. schools (Turner 1999; Holland & Livchak 2002), disproves the common perception that improving IAQ in an air-conditioned space must result in higher energy consumption.