Modeling Ventilation in Multifamily Buildings

John Markley and Curtis Harrington, UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center
Garth Torvestad, Benningfield Group, inc.

ABSTRACT

Proper ventilation is an essential component of multifamily building design due to its

effects on occupant health and comfort. Though the concept of providing fresh air is
straightforward, multifamily buildings pose several unique challenges that require special
consideration in order to avoid excessive ventilation and energy waste. Two issues in particular
that must be addressed in multifamily buildings are minimizing the air that moves between
tenant spaces and ensuring that each individual space receives the required ventilation. In an
effort to address these topics the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center, as part of a
Public Interest Energy Research project, evaluated potential improvements to mechanical
ventilation of multifamily buildings. This paper outlines the results from energy models of
several multifamily building configurations to improve airflow balancing and energy efficiency
in high-rise multifamily buildings with central shaft exhaust ventilation.
The findings support several recommended changes to California’s energy code:

1) All residential ventilation requirements should be unified under a single standard to

remove discrepancies between high-rise and low-rise buildings as a result of the
misalignment of ASHRAE Standard 62.1 and ASHRAE Standard 62.2
2) Air tightness requirements should be implemented for the building envelope between
interior spaces to reduce the transfer of contaminated air between tenants
3) For buildings that employ central ventilation systems:
3a. Air tightness requirements should be implemented for central ventilation ducts
3b. Pressure independent grills/dampers should be required for central ventilation
systems

Introduction
Multifamily buildings are a unique and common class of structure with specialized design
demands and distinctive energy use profiles. Historically multifamily buildings have fallen
between commercial and residential jurisdictions and, as a result, they have been addressed in a
piecemeal fashion resulting in a hodgepodge of codes and standards that govern their
construction and operation. Due to this lack of focus many of the unique characteristics of
multifamily buildings are either unaddressed or forced to adhere to guidelines that were
developed for entirely different purposes.

Background
In 2010 The California Energy Commission set out to improve the manner in which
California’s Building Code1 approached multifamily buildings by sponsoring a Public Interest

1
California’s Building Energy Efficiency Standards: Title 24, Part 6

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-192

 Energy Research (PIER) project called Unique Multifamily Code-Relevant Measures
(UMCRM). One particular focus of the UMCRM project was to evaluate the opportunities and
possible solutions surrounding ventilation in multifamily buildings with an eye toward achieving
California’s goal of net-zero building design by 2020.
Like many states California’s ventilation codes are founded upon the work of the
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) which
initiated and authored the preeminent ventilation standard in North America, ASHRAE Standard
62.2 Originally, ASHRAE 62 was developed with a focus on commercial applications and did
little to address issues specific to single family residences. Around the year 2000, ASHRAE
introduced Standard 62.2 Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential
Buildings effectively splitting Standard 62 into two separate documents (Sherman, 2000).
As defined by ASHRAE, Standard 62.1 addresses ventilation issues in “all spaces
intended for human occupancy except those within single-family houses, multifamily structures
of three stories or fewer above grade, vehicles, and aircraft.” Alternatively, ASHRAE 62.2
addresses ventilation issues in “single-family houses and multifamily structures of three stories
or fewer above grade, including manufactured and modular houses”.

High-Rise vs. Low-Rise Multifamily Ventilation Rates

As you can see by the previous descriptions, multifamily buildings fall under both
standards divided only by the number of stories above grade.3 More to the point, high-rise
multifamily buildings governed by Standard 62.1 have had requirements imposed upon them that
were developed for commercial purposes. The requirements are laid out in Table 1 for each
building type.

Table 1. Ventilation rate requirements for low-rise (ASHRAE 62.2) and high-rise (ASHRAE
62.1) buildings

Building Type Requirement Type Requirement Units

Low-Rise Multifamily
Whole Building, CFM
(ASHRAE 62.2)
Dwelling Unit CFM
High-Rise Multifamily
General Minimum CFM
(ASHRAE 62.1)
Common Corridors CFM

In an effort to illustrate the differences between how ventilation rates outlined in Table 1 are
calculated, Table 2 shows several representative scenarios and configurations for the various
inputs and Figure 1 plots the ventilation rate of each calculation method vs. the floor area.

2
The complete title of the document is “ASHRAE 62: Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality”
3
Three stories and fewer is classified as “Low-Rise” while four stories and more is classified as “High-Rise”

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-193

 Table 2. Ventilation rate calculations for representative low-rise and high-rise multifamily
buildings per ASHRAE 62.2 and ASHRAE 62.1, respectively
High-rise dwelling Ratio of
2 Low-rise ventilation rate: High rise
Area (ft ), # of Bedrooms, unit ventilation rate:
,
] , vs. low rise
[CFM]
[CFM]
500 1 30  40 1.3
1000 1 45  70 1.5
1500 2 67.5  105 1.5
2000 3 90  140 1.5
2500 4 112.5  175 1.5
3000 5 135  210 1.5

Figure 1. Comparison of low-rise and high-rise ventilation rates calculated in Table 2.

Figure 1 illustrates a clear difference between ventilation rate requirements for high-rise
and low-rise buildings. Thus, in order to comply with these standards, for a similar size dwelling
unit, high-rise buildings must have a significantly higher ventilation rate than low-rise buildings.
Multifamily buildings are especially impacted by this discrepancy since two seemingly identical
buildings, which may only differ by one story, have unique sets of requirements enforced on
them leading to ventilation rates that can differ significantly.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-194

 Moving Toward Common Ventilation Requirements
In recent years the ASHRAE 62.2 standard has made a significant and sustained effort to
focus on the specific needs of multifamily buildings. Two of the most significant areas garnering
recent attention are the removal of infiltration credits built into the residential calculations and
reducing individual compartment envelope leakage, termed compartmentalization. The split
between high-rise and low-rise buildings, however, continues to persist.
The move toward removing the amount of infiltration credits for multifamily buildings
was due to the recognition that much of the infiltration in multifamily units can and will enter the
compartment through shared wall space. As such, infiltration from a neighboring space should
clearly not be counted toward the necessary ventilation that a low-rise multifamily dwelling unit
experiences because air coming from a neighboring space is often contaminated4 and can include
chemicals ranging exhaust from garages to tobacco smoke from other tenants. In addition,
because transfer air is often undesirable, unnecessarily high exhaust requirements can reduce
indoor air quality that can result in larger and larger portions of contaminated air being pulled
from adjoining spaces.5
In addition to removing infiltration credits the process of reducing envelope leakage of
the individual compartments (compartmentalization) is an effort to make it ever more difficult
for air to transfer between occupied spaces; as stated by ASHRAE 62.2 “measures shall be taken
to reduce inter-apartment airflows to less than 0.2 cfm/ ft2 at 50 Pascal through better sealing of
common walls, ceilings, and floors.” Furthermore, reducing the air permeance of the individual
compartments and the associated reduction in infiltration saves energy by reducing the amount of
conditioning load required to attain a comfortable indoor environment.

Challenges in Achieving Proper Ventilation in Multifamily Buildings

Accurately and dependably achieving the required amount of ventilation can be quite a
difficult endeavor, especially in high-rise buildings that are typically more susceptible to
environmental forces. Factors that work against consistent ventilation include the temperature
difference between inside and outside (i.e. stack effect), wind, and opening a door in a stairwell.
All of these factors influence the pressure profile of a building and directly affect the
performance of the ventilation system.
In addition to environmental and operational considerations, the architectural attributes,
such as service chases6 and penetrations, can play a large role in how air moves through a
building. Further, if the ventilation system employs a central shaft (vs. individual spot exhaust)
that serves several floors, the additional air pathways influence the pressure profile of the
building. Therefore, central shaft ventilation systems are particularly susceptible to changing
environmental conditions and balancing such a system is an exercise in futility because there are
so many variables; even if one were to succeed in manually manipulating dampers etc. to achieve
balanced and even airflow through all of the ventilation registers in a central ventilation system
the conditions will soon change and the system can become out of balance.

4
Outdoor air can also contain undesirable levels of similar pollutants such as vehicle exhaust particulate matter,
ozone, NO2, etc.
5
Air moving between tenants in a multifamily building can also be referred to as “transfer air”.
6
Any pathway between floors intended for plumbing, electrical, or mechanical service.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-195

 The combination of varying environmental conditions and a central exhaust system leads
to two bounding scenarios 1) if the minimum required ventilation is achieved at the grille with
the lowest flow, there is a significant amount of waste occurring in the form of over ventilation at
the other grilles in the system 2) if the minimum required ventilation is barely achieved at the
grille with highest flow, there is a significant amount of under ventilation at the other grilles in
the system. In practice central shaft systems typically fall somewhere in the middle where over
ventilation and energy waste occur in part of the system while under ventilation, leading to
potentially inadequate indoor air quality, occurs in other parts of the system.
Compounding the problems caused by stack effect, leaks in the central shaft require
increased fan flow to provide the designed flow rate at the exhaust register of a space. The
further down the exhaust shaft, the more air is pulled through leaks rather than the intended
exhaust registers. Both stack effect and leaks in ducts contribute to excess fan energy use and/or
inadequate ventilation.

Modeling and Simulation of Ventilation in Multifamily Buildings

The goal of this research was to assess the impact of various mitigation strategies to the
challenges faced with multifamily ventilation systems, and more specifically high-rise central
exhaust systems. Since part of the proposed code change involves unifying all multifamily
ventilation rates by reducing high-rise ventilation rates to those outlined by ASHRAE 62.2 for
low-rise multifamily buildings, the importance of achieving the proper ventilation rate
throughout high-rise buildings is even more important. The strategies evaluated include: sealing
exhaust ducts, installing self-balancing dampers at each exhaust grille, and sealing each
individual apartment envelope.

Model Description

A representative multifamily apartment building was modeled in EnergyPlus to

investigate the impact that various ventilation-related code changes, technologies, and
construction practices have on energy use and ventilation airflows. Although Department of
Energy reference models exist for multifamily buildings, there is no multifamily reference model
available that uses the airflow network objects in EnergyPlus that allow stack, wind, and interior
air flows to be calculated on an hourly bases. Therefore, the model discussed here was developed
specifically for this study. The EnergyPlus model was simulated in several California Climate
Zones including 3 (San Francisco Bay area), 8 (Los Angeles area) and 12 (Sacramento area), to
account for variations in climate.
Figure 2 illustrates the floor plan developed for this study, which is symmetrical in order
to minimize the effects that building orientation may have on the simulated results. Building
materials were chosen primarily from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL)
Building Component Library, which provides physical properties for a range of construction
types. Title 24 compliant constructions were used for all elements of the building envelope. In
typical apartment construction, interior walls are not insulated and interior doors are not designed
to seal individual rooms in an apartment. Therefore, individual rooms in each apartment are not
significantly isolated from each other and were considered to be part of one well-mixed thermal
zone.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-196

   40 ft 

30 ft  Compartment 1 

Compartment 2
Shaft 1

Elev.

Compartment 4 

Compartment 3

Figure 2. Floor plan description used in the energy models.

Another limitation presented by using the airflow network objects in EnergyPlus is that
the typical forced air heating and cooling systems used in multifamily buildings could not be
modeled simultaneously with the ventilation system. Therefore, heating and cooling loads were
satisfied using a radiant hydronic system fed by a central plant providing hot and cold water.
Conditioning of each apartment was individually controlled by a thermostat whose setpoint
schedules were configured using a temperature profile specified by the Energy Commission’s
Residential Alternative Calculation Method (ACM) (CEC 2008) Manual. Building internal mass
and internal gains were also set according to the ACM manual.
To capture the effects of distributed leak heights on airflow, all exterior walls for each
apartment were modeled with three leaks evenly spaced along the height of the walls. Interior
walls, which are not directly impacted by wind or stack effect (because temperature differences
between indoor zones are small), were modeled with a single leak between each compartment.
Floors and ceilings were each modeled with a single leak in each surface because height is not a
factor in horizontal surfaces.
To account for vertical air movement the model includes an elevator shaft in the common
space adjoining all apartments on each floor. Each apartment was modeled with a leak through
the apartment door and another leak through the elevator door. The leak area around the door
leading to the elevator shaft, as well as the leak through the elevator door (ceiling leak in
modeled elevator shaft), was based on measured data from a high-rise residential building (Jae-
Hun et al. 2005).
The effect of compartmentalization was modeled by sealing exterior and unit-to-unit
leaks to the level specified in ASHRAE 62.2 (0.2 CFM50/sqft of total envelope area7) from a

7
Total envelope area refers to the sum of all floor, ceiling and wall areas.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-197

 baseline leakage (0.4 CFM50/ft2 of total envelope area). The distribution of leaks was
determined using various sources. The floor/ceiling leakage was calculated based on typical
leakage for floors of commercial buildings (ASHRAE 2009), which assumes that high-rise
multifamily buildings have similar floor construction to similarly sized commercial buildings8.
The remaining leakage needed for the unit to meet the total specified envelope leakage area was
distributed between interior and exterior walls. The door leak was subtracted from the previously
determined total interior leakage, and remaining interior leakage was distributed among interior
wall surfaces.
Three types of mechanical exhaust ventilation systems were modeled in this study:

 Central shaft exhaust with a rooftop fan and unbalanced registers at each apartment,
 Central shaft exhaust with a rooftop fan and self-balancing dampers at each apartment,
and
 Individual unit exhaust fans.

In addition, two methods for sizing the rooftop fan were used: 1) a prescriptive approach
in which the fan size was based on the sum of ventilation airflow requirement for all units
served9, and 2) a compliant approach in which the fan size was based on the airflow needed for
all apartments served to receive the minimum required ventilation rate during most hours of the
year. The second approach accounts for the variable, unbalanced, apartment-level airflows
known to exist in many multifamily buildings10, as well as the duct leakage present in the
system.

Modeling Scenarios

The various models that were developed to evaluate the various ventilation schemes are
described in Table 2. Table 3 outlines the independent variables used as inputs for each
respective simulation.

Table 3. Ventilation systems and schemes modeled and evaluated

Ventilation Schemes Modeled Description
Central shaft without balancing Central shaft exhaust ventilation systems with equivalent
sized grille openings
Central shaft with balancing Central shaft exhaust ventilation systems that had been
manually balanced once during the year by adjusting the
grille openings
Central shaft with self- Central shaft exhaust ventilation systems with self-
balancing dampers balancing dampers installed at each grille
Individual unit Individual unit ventilation with a fan installed in each apt

8
Stakeholders, including consulting engineers and contractors interviewed, have not indicated any difference in the
construction practices of similarly sized multifamily and commercial buildings.
9
The prescriptive approach is believed to be standard industry practice.
10
The method assured that the average ventilation for each room was at least one standard deviation above the
minimum ventilation requirement.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-198

 Table 4. Independent variables used in the models
Variables Simulated High-Rise Low-Rise
Ventilation Rate 92 CFM per unit 66 CFM per unit
Leaky Tight
Duct Leakage 25% of fan flow 5% of fan flow
Compartmentalization 0.4CFM50/ft2 envelope area 0.2CFM50/ft2 envelope area

Simulation Results

The results of the simulations are presented and analyzed based on two primary metrics:
1) ventilation performance (i.e., stability and distribution of ventilation flow rates), and 2)
building energy use. In all cases the overall energy consumption of the building was reduced
compared to a baseline condition that satisfies ventilation requirements throughout the building;
interestingly, however, nearly all cases show a small increase in the cooling load that is usurped
by large heating energy savings. As expected the location (i.e. weather) has a large impact on the
overall energy consumption of the buildings.
Figure 3 shows the average exhaust flow each of the six floors for four of the model
scenarios with the blue line indicating the target ventilation rate for each of the models. The
compliant model with no balancing shows significant over ventilation on average during the
year. This results in wasted energy in the form of fan energy, but primarily heating and cooling
energy to condition the extra ventilation air. The prescriptive model with no balancing shows
significant under ventilation on average, which is assumed to result in inadequate indoor air
quality. When balancing the prescriptive model once in the summer, the ventilation flow
distribution improves but still shows that many floors are under ventilated. The model with self-
balancing dampers demonstrates very steady ventilation flows throughout the year providing
each floor with the minimum ventilation required without any significant over ventilation.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-199

 Figure 3. Average exhaust flow rate for apartments on each of the six floors for four of the models simulated
(CZ12).

Figure 4 shows the average amount of transfer air that enters an apartment on each floor
of the building for California Climate Zone 12 (Sacramento Area). This is the average result for
all models with leaky envelopes (on left side) and tight envelopes (on right side). Figure 4 clearly
illustrates that tighter construction practices result in less transfer air entering the apartments.
Ultimately, this suggests an improvement in indoor air quality since less make-up air comes from
neighboring spaces. Though the reduction of the amount of air coming from adjacent spaces is
improved, a significant fraction of the air exhausted still originates from other apartments.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-200

 Figure 4. Average interior air flow into apartments on each floor for models with leaky vs. tight envelopes
(CZ12).

Figure 5 illustrates the average reduction annual energy resulting from lowering the high-
rise ventilation rate to the same rate required in low-rise buildings. The percent reduction in
annual energy use was found to be 38% for California climate zone 3, 20% for California climate
zone 8, and 29% for California climate zone 12. Reducing the amount of leakage each
compartment experiences from “leaky” envelopes (Ueno, Lstiburek, and Bergey 2012) to “tight”
envelopes11 shows a similar trend in the reduction of annual energy across the same California
climate zones, see Figure 6. Although the percentages for annual energy savings are not as
significant compared to reducing high-rise ventilation rates it is encouraging to observe that the
net effect of compartmentalization saves energy; the primary benefits of compartmentalization
are improving indoor air quality by reducing transfer air by 40% as previously discussed.
For central shaft systems, the effect on annual energy use of reducing duct leakage from
25% of total flow to just 5% (ASHRAE 2013) of total flow is shown in Figure 8. The percent
reduction in annual energy use was found to be 23% for California climate zone 3, 13% for
California climate zone 8, and 16% for California climate zone 12. In addition to these annual
energy savings, and perhaps more important to the overall goal of reliably achieving proper
ventilation, sealing central ventilation shafts allow self-balancing dampers to operate much more
effectively (Ueno, Lstiburek, and Bergey 2012).

11
The value for “tight” envelopes 0.2cfm/ft2 of envelope area is the minimum proposed by ASHRAE standard 62.2
and would show greater savings for values tighter than the minimum requirement.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-201

 Figure 5. Comparison of annual energy use between low-rise and high-rise ventilation rates across
California climate zones 3, 8, and 12.

Figure 6. Comparison of annual energy use between “leaky” envelopes (0.4cfm/ft2 of envelope area) and
“tight” envelopes (0.2cfm/ft2 of envelope area) across California climate zones 3, 8, and 12.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-202

 Figure 7. Comparison of annual energy use between “leaky” ducts (25% of total flow) and “tight” ducts
(5% of total flow) across California climate zones 3, 8, and 12.

Lastly, a building that combines lowering ventilation rates, tightening compartment

envelopes, tightening central shafts, and using self-balancing dampers was compared to three
different “baseline” cases. The first baseline comparison consisted of a building using a central
ventilation shaft with high-rise ventilation rates that were achieved in even the least favorable
instances (i.e. compliant), leaky envelopes, and leaky ducts. The second baseline comparison
was identical to the first case except that the value of electricity and gas were input according to
California’s Time Dependent Valuation (TDV) methodology. The third and final baseline
comparison consisted of a building using a central ventilation shaft with high-rise ventilation
rates that were achieved on average (i.e. prescriptive), leaky envelopes, and leaky ducts. The
results of these comparisons are presented in Table 4.

Table 5. Annual energy savings (%) of all ventilation measures combined compared to several
baselines
CA Climate Zone 3 CA Climate Zone 8 CA Climate Zone 12
Compliant 70% 52% 59%
TDV 39% 8% 31%
Prescriptive 35% 13% 28%

Time Dependent Valuation

The multifamily ventilation improvements that were modeled result in significant energy
savings for high-rise multifamily buildings across multiple California Climate Zones. Yearly

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-203

 savings estimates were based on results of the EnergyPlus model described above in the paper
and assume all measures were adopted. The TDV values weight the value of energy saved based
on the value of energy at every particular hour of the year. This analysis is based on a 30-year
life cycle. A complete analysis across multiple building prototypes and all climate zones,
weighted for the population of buildings has not yet been completed. The analysis looking at
three critical climate zones shows significant savings (Table 5).

Table 6. Energy savings and TDV savings due to adopting the code changes in each Climate
Zone modeled
Electricity Natural Gas TDV TDV Gas TDV Net
Savings Savings Electricity Savings Savings
(kWh/yr) (Therms/yr) Savings (TDV kBTU) (TDV kBTU)
(TDV kBTU)
Per six-story
multifamily -689 1,749 -31,981 88,881 56,900
CZ3  Building
Savings per
-0.024 0.061 -1.110 3.086 1.976
square foot
Per six-story
multifamily ‐1,050  816 ‐30,263 42,944  12,681
CZ8  Building
Savings per
‐0.036  0.028 ‐1.051 1.491  0.440
square foot
Per six-story
multifamily ‐114  2,048 1,568 106,608  108,176
CZ12  Building
Savings per
‐0.004  0.071 0.054 3.702  3.756
square foot
 

For the purposes of calculating the Time Dependent Valuation (TDV) the baseline model
represents a building that meets the intent of the 2008 Title 24 standard using standard practices
for mechanical ventilation system design and installation. This model is a central shaft model
without balancing with leaky ducts and leaky envelopes, and used the compliant approach to
sizing the fan.

Conclusions
This paper presented the results of several EnergyPlus simulations of showing the impact
of multiple proposed changes to California’s Title 24 Building Codes. The proposed changes are
intended to improve ventilation in multifamily buildings by unifying the ventilation code under a
unique set of requirements for multifamily buildings, requiring that self-balancing dampers be
installed on each grille and duct leakage be reduced to 5% of fan flow when using central shaft
ventilation systems, and require that all apartments are sealed to the ASHRAE 62.2
recommended 0.2 CFM50/ft2 of envelope area. The models show that adopting these changes not

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-204

 only improve indoor air quality but also reduce HVAC energy use in high-rise multifamily
buildings in each of the three California Climate Zones modeled.

References
ASHRAE (2013). 2013 ASHRAE Handbook, Fundamentals. Measurement and Instrumentation.

CEC (2008). Residential Alternative Calculation Method (ACM) Approved Manual, 2008
Building Energy Efficiency Standards.

Jae-Hun Jo, Jae-Han Lim, Seung-Yeong Song, Myoung-Souk Yeo, Kwang-Woo Kim (2005).
Characteristics of pressure distribution and solution to the problems caused by stack
effect in high-rise residential buildings. Building and Environment 42.

Sherman, M.H. (2000) ASHRAE's Residential Ventilation Standard: Exegesis of Proposed

Standard 62.2. Indoor Environment Department, Environment Energy Technologies

Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Ueno, K., Lstiburek, J., and Bergey, D. (2012). Multifamily Ventilation Retrofit Strategies.
Building Science Corporation. U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program.

©2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 1-205