Possible effects of new Swedish ventilation regulations for residential buildings

In March 2023, the Swedish national Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket) published a proposal for new ventilation rates in Sweden. The supply air should by this be calculated based on an equation using the heated floor area as the main input. It is set as optional to use less ventilation flow if this could be sufficient. However, in a questionnaire to Swedish practitioners within the field, this option is said to be seen to be seldomly used. The new suggested regulation will have a high impact on the ventilation air flow in dwellings, with a major impact on smaller dwellings, but also on dwellings with a size of 60 – 80 m2. Using the suggested ventilation air flow, the increase will be more than 100 % in dwellings < 50 m2 and between 60 – 80% in dwellings of 60 – 80 m2. The higher ventilation rates will increase the overall energy demand for buildings, both due to electricity demand for ventilation fans as well as energy to cover heat losses. The increase in energy demand will by this impact on the GWP during operations. A higher ventilation rate also affects the costs within construction and decrease rentable space.