When constructing or renovating a building structure, you shouldn’t only pay attention to its architectural and structural angles, but also to its functional aspects.
After all, you’re not just building a standalone structure for the sake of it; you’re playing a role in constructing something meant to keep occupants sheltered and safe. As such, safety is absolutely paramount.
One key consideration to make throughout the planning process is the building’s ventilation. This factor isn’t just about its windows and doors. It’s a working and circulating system that spans the entire building through duct works, rooftop vents, and HVAC systems.
With how essential ventilation is to a building’s comfort levels, it’s no surprise that many building planners and engineers take great care to choose the best type for each building project.
Nowadays, building owners can choose among many ventilation systems to match their individual needs, whether it’s sustainability, comfort, or cost. The category that most people consider, though, is mechanical vs natural ventilation.
So which is best for your specific building project? Let’s look into this matter in greater detail.
What is Building Ventilation?
Ventilation is a key process that helps regulate and promote ample airflow within a typical building structure. This is an integral process that helps maintain a comfortable, cool, and clean building environment.
Without ventilation, stagnant, humid, and polluted air can build up and gradually worsen indoor air quality. This not only makes the air inside the building stuffy and uncomfortable, but it can also increase the health risks of people who live or frequently occupy the building in question.
With proper air ventilation, these problems are checked and regulated. Temperature levels also stabilize, making everyone inside the building feel more comfortable for its occupants, improving its atmosphere for restfulness and productivity.
As previously mentioned, ventilation can be classified into two different types: mechanical and natural.
Mechanical ventilation operates on an electrical system throughout the whole structure. This allows its components to control and filter airflow with greater flexibility. The intricacy in the manufacturing system contributes to this system fetching a higher installation and construction price than natural ventilation systems.
In contrast, natural ventilation systems can operate passively. It can alter wind and temperature through its design and placement alone, allowing the building to remain cool and well-ventilated without needing extra juice from electricity.
Examples of Mechanical and Natural Ventilation Systems
Each ventilation system category has different vents that promote airflow using different mechanisms. It’s not uncommon for building owners and engineers to use a combination of two or more ventilation types, both within and outside the same category, to keep their building well-ventilated.
If you’re new to this space, it can be understandably quite difficult to find the best vent system to install in your building. To help, we’ll provide a list of popular ventilation systems that you can find across different building structures, categorized into either mechanical or natural variants.
Here are some mechanical vent types:
- Exhaust fans: This ventilation uses a fan to suck air into its vents or ducts. This is useful in humid environments like kitchens or bathrooms as it prevents pollutants and humidity from contributing to foul odours and bacterial growth.
- Supply air diffusers: It brings fresh air indoors using their shaped design, facilitating a continuous air replacement cycle.
- Heat recovery ventilation: A ventilation system that uses two different air sources at different temperatures to enhance indoor air quality. This system uses thermal energy conduction to stabilise temperatures, that is, keep warm air warm in wintertime and cool air cool in summertime. This doesn’t transfer latent heat streams, meaning moisture can seep through.
- Energy recovery ventilation: A ventilation system that transfers both temperature and moisture. Helps reduce incoming humidity from the outdoors because of a built-in membrane that controls the flow of water vapour.
In contrast, here are some natural vent examples:
- Windows and doors: Two classic additions to building structures—and a good facilitator for controlling air pressure and temperature inside the building. This is an especially helpful natural air flow controller if situated directly across from one another, a concept known as cross-ventilation.
- Rooftop louvres: A slat situated and connected to the building’s ceiling and rooftop. This natural vent allows hot air, which naturally sits and builds up at the ceiling area, to disperse—Bernoulli’s principle in action.
- Ridge vents: Harness the natural differences between indoor and outdoor air pressure to push airflow upwards and outside the premises.
- Trickle vents: Vents situated between window frames that provide air inside the premises, even if the windows themselves are closed.
As seen above, there are different faces of ventilation that can be considered in a standard building design. The right ventilation system for your building can be one, two, or a combination of these vents.
They don’t cover the entire breadth of vent systems you can consider, either. If you need leads, check these energy-efficient solutions by Airocle for some quality ventilation ideas for your building.
What Vent Type To Pick for Comfort and Savings?
The truth is that mechanical and natural ventilation systems have their pros and cons.
There’s no singular type that’s superior to the other. As this is the case, it’s important to scrutinize each type in accordance with your needs instead of hastily generalizing and selecting your building’s vent type.
That said, if you prioritize comfort, mechanical systems tend to be a better option than most natural systems as they keep steady temperatures and cool air running throughout the building.
However, if you prefer sustainability and savings, creating a building with natural ventilation is a solid option too.
In any case, there are trade-offs for each option. If you want your building or renovation project to feel cozy inside and stay within budget, then you may want to think of combining systems or opting for a hybrid vent design to get the job done.
Pros of Mechanical Ventilation
1.It’s Reliable
Mechanical ventilation works regardless of the weather conditions outside. It can pump out stale air when you want it to, no matter how much of it has accumulated indoors. This reliability ensures that the building’s occupants can enjoy lasting comfort as long as the mechanical vent is switched on.
2. It Promotes Steady Air Quality
Unlike natural ventilation, mechanical ventilation can filter out inward air effectively. This means less dust, allergens, and pollutants can enter your space from the outdoors, helping you keep your building and its contents clean and your occupants healthy and free from health hazards and allergens.
3. It’s Flexible
Mechanical ventilation can be switched on and off at your convenience. This makes zoning and controlling airflow within the structure easier for anyone to accomplish.
If you don’t want to filter air, for instance, you can simply leave the system off and turn it on only when you need it.
4. It Keeps Air Dry and Cool
Mechanical ventilation systems can retain a space’s dryness, keeping the air moisture-free and comfortable for going about daily things. Some of these systems can even regulate temperature and humidity to your liking, which is not something natural ventilation systems can do easily.
Cons of Mechanical Ventilation
1. It Has Higher Costs
Mechanical ventilation often comes with humidity and temperature-controlling features alongside its air-cycling capabilities. This increased complexity makes it pricier to install, maintain, and operate on average, leading to higher costs both during installation and through its operational cycle.
Couple that with the fact that mechanical vents are often installed throughout the whole building, and it’s not surprising to see why this system tends to cost more than natural ventilation.
2. It is Energy Intensive
Mechanical vents run on electricity. If you need continuous airflow and only have mechanical vents, then you’re bound to generate electricity. For individuals who value sustainability and cost savings, there are better options out there among the natural vents list.
3. It Has a Noisy Operation
Many mechanical vents produce a whirring sound when in use. This comes from the fans and blowers of the machine cycling air, and the long pipe tunnels that make the sound reverberate loudly.
This can be distracting to people when turned on, especially in close quarters, focus areas, and rest areas where even minor sounds are often heightened.
4. It Needs Frequent Servicing
Mechanical vents require more moving parts than natural vents to operate. As this is the case, there’s a higher chance for things to break down, rendering the entire system useless.
If you don’t have the time of day to constantly maintain your vents, then you may want to make a pass on mechanical vents and turn towards more sustainable and natural solutions.
Pros of Natural Ventilation
1. It Has a Lower Cost
With natural ventilation systems in your building, you won’t have to pay energy bills to reap the benefits of a ventilated space.
2. It’s Sustainable
You’ll produce fewer carbon emissions in the environment by opting for louvres or natural vents instead of mechanical vents.
3. It Offers Simplicity
You don’t have to worry about encountering or paying for complex maintenance issues, as natural ventilation designs tend to be very straightforward.
This is assuming, of course, that you’re not looking into making any drastic renovation project to optimize cross ventilation or the stack effect.
Cons of Natural Ventilation
1. Its Effectiveness Can Be Spotty
Natural ventilation’s effectiveness can change depending on outdoor conditions.
If the weather is too stormy or windy, or if it’s too polluted and dusty outside, the ventilation may not be strong enough to ensure a cosy indoor environment for the occupants or building dwellers.
2. It Can be a Security Risk
Using windows and doors as your primary means of ventilation can be a risky approach, especially if your building is situated in an area where theft and crime are commonplace.
And even if your city’s crime index is low, some forms of natural ventilation can encroach on your privacy, which can be uncomfortable for clear reasons.
