ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction and an overview of materials presented in subsequent chapters in this book. The objectives of a ventilation system for offices, conference rooms, and commercial spaces are to promote comfort and to suppress odors due to human occupancy, building equipment, and building materials. Additional important objectives include temperature control and effective arrangement of air supply points in relation to the space dimensions, its shape, and nature of its occupancy. In plants where there are no air contaminating processes, general ventilation systems are also needed to remove the excesses of either solar heat or heat generated within the space by operation of lighting and machinery. Plant engineers and those charged with the design of industrial buildings often design ventilation systems without the assistance of a ventilation engineer. The reason for an exhaust system in a woodworking plant is quite different from reasons applying to the host of modern air contaminating processes.
