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The Possible Role of Indoor Radon Reduction Systems in Back‐Drafting Residential Combustion Appliances
Author(s) -
Henschel D. Bruce
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
indoor air
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.387
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1600-0668
pISSN - 0905-6947
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0668.1997.t01-1-00006.x
Subject(s) - environmental science , stock (firearms) , engineering , environmental engineering , mechanical engineering
A computational sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the conditions under which residential active soil depressurization (ASD) systems for indoor radon reduction might most likely exacerbate or create back‐drafting of natural‐draft combustion appliances. Parameters varied included: house size; normalized leakage area; exhaust rate of exhaust appliances other than the ASD system; and the amount of house air exhausted by the ASD system. Even with a reasonably conservative set of assumptions, it is predicted that ASD systems should not exacerbate or create back‐ drafting in most of the U.S. housing stock. Only at normalized leakage areas lower than 3 to 4 cm 2 (@ 4 Pa) per m 2 of floor area should ASD contribute to back‐drafting, even in small houses at high ASD exhaust rates (compared to a mean of over 10 cm 2 /m 2 determined from data on over 12,000 U.S. houses). But on the other hand, even with a more forgiving set of assumptions, it is predicted that ASD systems could contribute to back‐drafting in some fraction of the housing stock – houses tighter than about 1 to 2 cm 2 /m 2 – even in large houses at minimal ASD exhaust rates. It is not possible to use parameters such as house size or ASD system flow rate to estimate reliably the risk that an ASD system might contribute to back‐drafting in a given house. Spillage/back‐draft testing would be needed for essentially all installations.