Identifying occupant behavioral impacts on stack effect in high-rise residential buildings: Field measurements

Abstract

In high-rise residential buildings, the winter stack effect is a significant driving force for the overall air movement. The stack-driven pressure distribution has a substantial impact on indoor air quality, heating loads, comfort, system performance, and habitability, exhibiting different patterns in each unit on each floor. In such scenarios, the behavior of occupants in real building operations can significantly increase the stack-driven pressure differences and related problems. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of resident behavior in high-rise residential buildings on the stack-driven pressure distribution across a building through field measurements conducted in a real building operation. This study distinguishes between the behavioral patterns of occupants in common areas and individual units. The field measurement results showed that the momentary opening of the main entrance doors owing to occupants entering or leaving the building increased the stack effect pressure difference in the high-rise units by up to 55 %. The operation of the bathroom exhaust and kitchen hoods in the dwelling unit increased the pressure difference at the dwelling entrance door by a maximum of 66 Pa. In addition, it was observed that the exhaust performance of the upper-level units decreased according to the airtightness of envelopes and unit entrance doors. Based on the findings of real-time measurements in actual building operations, knowledge and recommendations for mitigating the stack effect during building operations were provided.