IAQ

The Spanish Building Code (BC) regulates indoor air quality (IAQ) requirements in dwellings by establishing threshold continuous flow rates according to the occupancy, use of the rooms and their usable area. The implementation of this threshold flow allow adequate IAQ.
A revised IAQ requirement have been proposed. These new requirement quantifies the IAQ as a function of CO2 concentration which means an non continuous flow rates ventilation systems will be able to be used.

To study the impact of the filtration efficiency level on the particle concentration in a rural school equipped with a balanced ventilation system with heat recovery, measurements of indoor and outdoor particle concentrations have been carried out by using three different efficiency filters. The tested filters are respectively classed G4, F7 and F9 according to NF EN 779 (2012).

The aim of this paper is to show the effects of variable ventilation rates on the demand of energy and air quality in dwellings, and how airtightness and wind affect this relation. It is interesting to estimate the relation between the air ventilation rate and airtightness of dwellings which makes the dwelling to be under-pressure in order to avoid infiltrations.

Within this paper, an evaluation of Indoor Air Quality in residential buildings, and the experience after a building retrofit is shown. One residential building in a Madrid social housing neighbourhood serves as case study and base for the monitoring. 

As an alternative to adopting active architectural systems (mechanical systems) and taking advantage of the resources provided by nature, natural ventilation contributes interesting solutions to control the thermal balance and the air quality, and it is applicable in a variety of climate zones. Natural ventilation also solves some of the more common problems of mechanical systems, such as the noise factor and installation and maintenance costs.

This paper reports on research to analyze the indoor air quality (IAQ) and the concentration and varying patterns of CO2, formaldehyde and TVOC in commercial buildings located in Chongqing, South-West China. Two buildings were monitored during the day over two weeks in the summer period. One was a completed building that had been fully operational for several years. This building is termed the ‘non-renovated’ building. The other was a commercial building of similar age that was currently undergoing renovation on one of the main retail floors.

The ventilation required in order to maintain acceptable indoor hygiene standards results in a significant consumption of energy. Currently the Spanish regulations on indoor air quality (IAQ) require minimum rates for delivery-to and extraction-from the habitable rooms of residential buildings. These rates are not adjustable, so ventilation systems based on variable ventilation rates, are not normally deemed acceptable unless a comprehensive statement of compliance is provided, justifying the proposed ventilation solution.

French authorities have launched an extensive thermal renovation program aiming at retrofitting 4M dwellings over 10 years, with priority given to the most energy consuming ones. Without specific focus on airtightness, retrofitting does not achieve very low airtightness levels, which means numerous leaks in the envelope. Added to the possibility of fungus development at the junction between ancient and new wall, the possibility of airflow conveying pollutants emitted in walls into indoor air is a major concern for public health.

The present article deals with the energy classification and the environmental evaluation of the school buildings in Greece. The energy performance of the school buildings, in relation to the normalized annual consumption for heating regarding floor area and climatic conditions, was rated using clustering technique (K-means algorithm) and an energy classification tool developed. The audited school buildings were classified into five energy categories.

Hybrid ventilation (HV), as a combination of automated natural ventilation (NV) and balanced mechanical ventilation (MV), provides opportunities to use the advantages of both ventilation systems during the seasons in order to reduce energy demand and at the same time obtain comfortable indoor climate.