A Study on Airing Through the Porches of a Historical Church – Measurements and IDA-ICE Modelling

In churches, intentional airing may be a measure to evacuate temporarily high levels of contaminants that are emitted during services and other occasions. Crucial contaminants include moisture and other emissions that may deteriorate and/or soil painted surfaces and other precious artefacts. Most old churches do not have any mechanical ventilation system or any purpose provided openings for natural ventilation, but the ventilation is governed by air infiltration. Enhanced airing may be achieved by opening external windows or doors. Thus, models provided in energy simulation programs should predict this kind of air flows correctly, also in order to get a proper estimation of the total energy use. IDA-ICE is examined here and the model for air flow through a large vertical opening used in the program is investigated. In the present study, field measurements were performed for airing rate in a historical church. In comparison with measured air flow rates, the simulated results were of the same magnitude, but the effect of wind direction was less considered by the simulation program.Church projec