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Ventilation systems are mainly responsible for maintaining the quality of indoor air. Together with thermal comfort maintenance systems, they create appropriate conditions for living, working, learning, sleeping, etc., depending on the type of building. This explains the high popularity of research in this area. This paper presents a review of articles published in the years 2020–2023, which are indexed in the Scopus database and found with keywords "ventilation" and "thermal comfort" in conjunction with the type of building or predominant activity. Finally, 88 selected works for five types of buildings were discussed, namely offices, schools, hospitals, bedrooms, and atriums. Data on publications are summarized in the tables, taking into account the publishing year, country of origin of the authors, and keywords. In this way, the latest directions in research were presented, and research groups dealing with this subject were highlighted. For each type of building, synthetic conclusions were presented, summarizing the results of the analyzed research. This review paper would be helpful for scientists and practitioners in the field of ventilation in order to organize knowledge and in a short time be up to date with the latest research showing how ventilation affects the quality of use of buildings by their users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for healthy indoor conditions, the energy crisis, and environmental concerns make building ventilation systems very important today. The elements of ventilation systems to reduce energy intensity are constantly the subject of much scientific research. The most recent articles published in the last three years are analyzed in this paper. Publications focused on the topic of reducing energy consumption in ventilation systems were selected and divided into five key research areas: (1) the aspect of the airtightness of buildings and its importance for the energy consumption, (2) the methods and effects of implementing the concept of demand-controlled ventilation in buildings with different functions, (3) the possibilities of the technical application of decentralized ventilation systems, (4) the use of earth-to-air heat exchangers, (5) the efficiency of exchangers in exhaust air heat-recovery systems. The multitude of innovative technologies and rapid technological advances are reflected in articles that appear constantly and prompt a constant updating of knowledge. This review constitutes a relevant contribution to recognizing current advancements in ventilation systems and may be helpful to many scientists in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The atrium can be used as an element of a mechanical ventilation system. • IES-VE was used to estimate possibility of using atrium to provide thermal comfort. • In buildings, artificial lighting should be regulated in daylight function. • <10% of the hours beyond thermal comfort were obtained during academic year. • Using the atrium as a heat buffer 22%primary energy was obtained. The form, attractiveness, functionality, and exterior appearance of buildings have been important considerations in architecture for centuries. Large common spaces, sharing of daylight, and the use of large glazing are also important. Combining many of these factors, buildings with atriums form a focal point, create a social meeting place, and contribute to the attractiveness of the building by providing a large open interior space. In cold and moderate climates, the atrium roof is important as the climate is often not conducive to outdoor activities. Using an IES-VE simulation, variants of a building in which the atrium was an independent element of the building or integrated into the ventilation system as a passive heater were analyzed. Additionally, two lighting systems were analyzed: on/off time-dependent control and daylight-dependent control (using dimming profiles for artificial lighting). Integrating the atrium into the HVAC system reduced the primary energy consumption for air heating by 17–22%. Using regulated lighting lowered the number of overheating hours. Factoring when the building was used (academic year), the atrium variants met thermal comfort requirements for 90% of its useful time, which did not occur when the atrium was not integrated. Therefore, integrating an atrium with an HVAC system can reduce energy consumption while providing thermal comfort to users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air handling units are usually used to maintain the thermal and humidity parameters in indoor swimming pools that are used for lap swimming and recreation. Their use throughout the year consumes much more energy than, for example, air conditioning in residential or office buildings. Their considerable energy consumption is due to the need for their continuous operation to remove moisture gains from the evaporation of water and to heat the air and cover the heat losses of the pool. It is possible to design ventilation devices in such a way that the operating costs will be reduced, and the environmental impact will be significantly reduced. In this article, six different ventilation units in which different heat sources are used to heat the ventilation air have been evaluated; the selection of which was based on the most commonly used solutions. The results of the analysis are aimed to show which of the available heat sources is the most advantageous in terms of global and operating costs, and in terms of low CO2 emissions. Indicators of both the final and primary energy consumption, as well as the operating and global costs, were determined. The recommended solution that was chosen was the one that had both the lowest cost index (18–20% lower than most ecological sources) and the low primary energy index (8–13% higher than most ecological sources). The results showed that a heat pump in the ventilation unit proved to be the most beneficial solution. Unfortunately, this solution is rarely used due to its high investment costs (20% higher). However, the results have shown that the investment cost of using an advanced air handling unit will be recouped in only two to three years. Also, the global cost for units with a heat pump proved to be the lowest, despite high investment cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]