Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Most existing occupancy-based ventilation controls only ventilate if people are present. However, this approach ignores pollutants that are emitted when people are absent, such as formaldehyde from building materials and contents. Recognizing that pollutants are emitted when homes are vacant requires different approaches to occupancy-based ventilation system control, because occupants are exposed to high pollutant concentrations when they return home. In this study, we found that controlling for this additional pollutant exposure reduced the potential for energy savings from roughly 40% to less than 8% of ventilation energy.