For thousands of years, displacement ventilation has been used to produce high indoor air quality without the use of fans or other air moving plants.
This is due to the change in air density created by the use of energy. Before fans were available, the Romans, Moors and other skilled engineers used the principle in order to cool temples down, standards that would prove to be acceptable even today. Wherever the air movements were created by the energy source (e.g. in cooking fires during the iron age dwelling, log cabins and similar structures) the smoke and the fumes were cleared to a high level by 'natural' created displacement ventilation. During the Industrial Revolution foundries and forges once again used the same method in an attempt to provide improved working conditions for the operatives.
In the early seventies, Swedish engineers were faced with the problem of welding fumes being generated in large open assembly shops. Spot extraction was invariably provided, but it was established that welders did not use this equipment. Thus, more 'acceptable' systems were required.
Displacement ventilation was a new method, a method that very well met the required demands. Later on this became the most common used system, generally used for air supply to welding and other industrial premises. By the early eighties, displacememt ventilation was a well-established industrial system. After investigations in Norway, the Sick Building Syndrome was established. Later on this became 'Indoor Air Quality' and established the use of displacement ventilation in offices and similar buildings. This has been the most common form of ventilation in the United Kingdom ever since, which is now seen as an effective method for dealing with air quality problems. As the face velocity on a terminal might be as low as 0.1 m/s with a maximum of 0.5 m/s for industrial applications, displacement ventilation fulfils one of the main criteria for indoor air quality. Turbulent airflow, even when not perceived as a draught, has to be taken into account when specifying indoor air quality levels, according to European and Scandinavian requirements.
Test shows that REPUS' panels outperform most of their competitors in providing non-turbulent airflow through out the entire room or building.
