EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HEATING ENERGY USE AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENT DURING OPERATION OF ACTIVE SOIL DEPRESSURIZATION (ASD) RADON MITIGATION SYSTEM

摘要

This project was initiated to investigate if the operation of an Active Soil Depressurization (ASD) system for radon mitigation would affect building energy consumption for heating and indoor environmental parameters. Experiments were conducted in the twin houses of the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology for 2 weeks in November and December 2012 and 2 weeks in January 2013. The primary findings of this study have been that, under the test conditions that represent typical Canadian fall and winter weather, the continuous operation of an ASD system reduced the radon level in the basement from approximately 60 Bq/m~3 to 11 Bq/m~3, decreased the basement concrete floor surface temperature by 2.0°C, reduced the basement ambient air temperature by 1.0°C and had insignificant impact on the air pressure in the basement. The continuous operation of an ASD system with ground level lateral discharge increased the daily heating energy use by an average of roughly 6.8%, whereas the operation of the ASD system with above roof line discharge increased the daily heating energy use by an average of 4.2%.