THE INFLUENCE OF COVID RELATED VENTILATION RATE CHANGES ON THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND INFECTION PROBABILITY OF THE BUILDINGS: UNDERFLOOR AND OVERHEAD AIR DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has urged the need to reconsider how our built environments influence our health conditions. The new guidelines have highlighted the importance of environmental settings in the virus transmission process. Given that external air ventilation is a major element of a building's energy performance, it is necessary to investigate the influence of the new settings on the building's energy consumption. This study aims to determine the energy performance and infection risk of underfloor air distribution UFAD and overhead systems OH when exposed to varying levels of external air ventilation. The findings indicate that raising the rate of outside ventilation increases a building's energy usage in all climates. It is also shown that the UFAD system shows its energy-saving potential the most in cold climates and higher ventilation rates. These findings suggest that it is critical to consider distinct ventilation techniques to prevent rising energy consumption rates while lowering the risk of viral transmission. © 2022 Society for Modeling & Simulation International (SCS)