Suite Ventilation Characteristics of Current Canadian Mid-and High-Rise Residential Buildings

This paper characterizes ventilation in residential suites located in ten buildings in major metropolitan areas of Canada. All buildings were between six and thirty-two stories tall and were built between 1990 and 1995. 1. The key findings from field performance tests of these buildings were: 2. Corridor supply airflows usually did not meet design flows. 3. Makeup air paths for suite exhaust were not properly designed. 4. Suite access door leakage was highly variable and usually did not meet smoke control requirements. 5. Airflow from the corridor through the suite access door leakage appeared to be the primary ventilation air supply for suites. 6. Suites were usually well-ventilated, but some were marginally- or under-ventilated. 7. Poor pressure control often allowed transfer air from one suite to another. Inter-suite transfer air fractions ranged from 0 to 45%, with an average of 19%. In summary, this work showed suite ventilation can be highly influenced by corridor supply flows, by the treatment of corridor access doors, and by transfer airflows. As a result, suite ventilation at any given time in current mid- and high-rise residential buildings is very difficult to predict. To ensure suite ventilation performs as intended under all operating conditions, the building industry needs to address the identified problems through improved ventilation design, operation, and maintenance practices.