Sports facility · Ventilation
Ventilation in sports facility: what the SRI measures
Ventilation is about demand-controlled ventilation: more air when more people are present or CO2 rises, less when a room is empty. Heat recovery, free cooling with outdoor air and air-quality reporting count as well.
In short
- 1Sports facilities such as sports halls and swimming pools have high ventilation requirements due to variable occupancy patterns.
- 2The ventilation domain carries significant weight in the Smart Readiness Indicator for this building type, with the maximum weighting factor of 3 out of 3.
- 3This page shows which smart-ready services for ventilation are assessed in this building type and which functionality levels apply.
Weight of this domain for this building type
Which services count
| Service | Lowest level | Highest level | Advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supply air flow control at the room level V-1a · A · 5 levels | No ventilation system or manual control | Local Demand Control based on air quality sensors (CO2, VOC, ...) with local flow from/to the zone regulated by dampers | highest level |
| Air flow or pressure control at the air handler level V-1c · 5 levels | No automatic control: Continuously supplies of air flow for a maximum load of all rooms | Automatic flow or pressure control with pressure reset: Load dependent supplies of air flow for the demand of all connected rooms (for variable air volume systems with VFD) | – |
| Heat recovery control: prevention of overheating V-2c · 3 levels | Without overheating control | Modulate or bypass heat recovery based on multiple room temperature sensors or predictive control | – |
| Supply air temperature control at the air handling unit level V-2d · 4 levels | No automatic control | Variable set point with load dependant compensation. A control loop enables to control the supply air temperature. The setpoint is defined as a function of the loads in the room | – |
| Free cooling with mechanical ventilation system V-3 · 4 levels | No automatic control | H,x-directed control: The amount of outside air and recirculation air are modulated during all periods of time to minimize the amount of mechanical cooling. Calculation is performed on the basis of temperatures and humidity (enthalpy) | – |
| Reporting information regarding IAQ V-6 · A · 4 levels | None | Real time monitoring & historical information of IAQ available to occupants + warning on maintenance needs or occupant actions (e.g. window opening) | highest level |
Worked example
If everything in this domain is at level 0, the domain contributes nothing. At the highest level for all services, the indicative total score for this building type rises by about 10 percentage points (from 31 to 41 percent, with all other domains at level 1).
Why does ventilation count so heavily for sports facilities?
Sports halls and swimming pools have irregular usage patterns. During the day a space often stands empty, while occupancy is high in the evening and at weekends. A system that ventilates continuously at full capacity wastes substantial energy when no one is present.
Swimming pools require additional air handling for dehumidification, combined with high consumption for hot water. This makes demand-controlled ventilation, where the system adjusts air flow to actual occupancy, particularly valuable for this building type. For this reason, the Ventilation domain for sports facilities carries the highest weighting factor: 3 out of 3.
Which smart-ready services are assessed?
The Smart Readiness Indicator examines multiple smart-ready services within the Ventilation domain. Each service has functionality levels from 0 (no automation) to 4 (fully automated and demand-controlled).
- V-1a: control of supply air flow at room level, from manual adjustment to local demand-controlled adjustment with dampers per zone.
- V-1c: control of air flow or pressure at the air handling unit level, with automatic pressure reset as the highest level.
- V-2c: control of heat recovery to prevent overheating.
- V-2d: control of supply air temperature, from fixed setting to load-dependent setpoint.
- V-3: free cooling with mechanical ventilation, including night cooling and humidity-temperature controlled adjustment based on temperature and moisture.
- V-6: reporting of information on air quality, from sensors to real-time alerts for maintenance needs.
For sports halls and swimming pools, V-1a and V-1c in particular determine how much energy a building saves, because occupancy per field or space varies considerably.
What does this mean for the obligation regarding building automation?
Sports facilities do not always exceed the 290 kilowatt threshold of installed capacity that triggers building automation requirements. For larger complexes, such as a swimming pool with a substantial climate system, this may be the case.
The Smart Readiness Indicator itself is a voluntary tool. The European Commission must adopt a delegated act by 30 June 2027 that is expected to make the indicator mandatory for utility buildings with installations above 290 kilowatts.
What this means for you
- Owner
- As owner of a sports hall or swimming pool, it is worthwhile to assess the existing ventilation control against the functionality levels of services such as V-1a and V-1c. A higher level, for example demand-controlled adjustment based on CO2 sensors, reduces energy consumption precisely during the many hours when a space is not fully occupied.
- Tenant
- A sports association or swimming pool visitor will notice demand-controlled ventilation mainly in air quality: less stale air when busy, without the system running unnecessarily when a space is empty. At a higher functionality level of V-6, the manager can also intervene earlier if air quality declines.
- Advisor
- When assessing, note the difference between control at room level (V-1a) and at air handling unit level (V-1c), as both services count separately in the score. Also check whether heat recovery and free cooling (V-2c and V-3) are present, since these functionalities are often lacking in older sports facilities.
Next step
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