Ventilation & Uniform Building By Law 1984 Q6

Thomas Sim PEA2066

Q.
a) State five (5) main functions of ventilation in buildings. (10 marks)

b) With reference to the requirements provided under the Uniform Building By Law 1984, explain the types of mechanical ventilation. (15 marks)

(25 marks, 2014 Q6)

A.
(a) 5 functions of ventilation in buildings

Types of Ventilation by Passipedia - The Passive House Resource is a good read!

Read "Concepts and types of ventilation" by WHO hosted at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) here. And a good Q&A here by Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

There are four purposes of ventilation:

  1. Provide a continuous supply of fresh outside air.
  2. Maintain temperature and humidity at comfortable levels.
  3. Reduce potential fire or explosion hazards.
  4. Remove or dilute airborne contaminants.
(5 functions - may need improvement to this answer)

In a workplace, ventilation is used to control exposure to airborne contaminants. It is commonly used to remove contaminants such as fumes, dusts, and vapours, in order to provide a healthy and safe working environment. Ventilation can be accomplished by natural means (e.g., opening a window) or mechanical means (e.g., fans or blowers).

{Ventilation should not be confused with air motion induced by ceiling fans or other devices. Air motion influences thermal comfort, it can decrease thermal stratification, and it may cause pollutant dilution by way of mixing, but it does not introduce outside air and therefore does not classify as ventilation.}

Industrial systems are designed to move out (exhaust) and bring in (intake) a specific amount of air at a specific speed (velocity), which results in the removal of undesirable contaminants. While all ventilation systems follow the same basic principles, each system is designed specifically to match to the type of work and the rate of contaminant release at that workplace.

Ventilation is considered an "engineering control" to remove or control contaminants released in indoor work environments. It is one of the preferred ways to control employee exposure to air contaminants.

Other ways to control contaminants include:

  1. eliminate the use of the hazardous chemical or material,
  2. substitute with less toxic chemicals,
  3. process change, or
  4. work practice change.

Ref:

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety on Industrial Ventilation, available at
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/prevention/ventilation/introduction.html
{x} Wikipedia search 'Ventilation architecture', available at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventilation_(architecture)

(b) types of mechanical ventilation as in Uniform Building By Law 1984 (need improvement)

 

Ref:
Chen, Thiam Leong. Green Building Index Malaysia, ACMV System Energy Management System. PAM CPD 2009 Seminar, available at
http://www.greenbuildingindex.org/Resources/20090214%20-%20GBI%20MS1525-2007%20Seminar/20090214%20-%20GBI%20MS1525-2007%20Seminar%20(CTL)%20Presentation.pdf