ASHRAE Completes Draft of First-Ever Pathogen Mitigation Standard

On May 15th, 2023 ASHRAE announced the completion of the first draft of its standard for maintaining healthy indoor air quality (IAQ), with final approval expected in June and publishing anticipated in July.

English

Proposed Non-infectious Air Delivery Rates (NADR) for Reducing Exposure to Airborne Respiratory Infectious Diseases

In November 2022, the Lancet COVID-19 Commission Task Force on Safe Work, Safe School, and Safe Travel released a report proposing new Non-infectious Air Delivery Rates (NADR) for Reducing Exposure to Airborne Respiratory Infectious Diseases, exceeding the current minimum standards, and aiming to help mitigate infection risk and promote health.

English

Guidance to avoid health risk caused by energy saving measures in homes

Due to extreme increases in energy prices in European countries (as well as other non-European countries), building users may be tempted to take energy saving measures because they can no longer pay their energy bills. This in turn may have adverse effects on the indoor air quality - especially in older and badly insulated homes. This article gives some elementary advice on what people should and shouldn’t do in cold and temperate climates where indoor heating is normally needed in winter.

English

Ventilation Challenges in a Changing World (Book of Proceedings)

The Book of Proceedings of the 42nd AIVC - 10th TightVent - 8th venticool Conference: "Ventilation Challenges in a Changing World" held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 5-6 October 2022

Ventilation Challenges in a Changing World (Slides)

The Presentations at the 42nd AIVC - 10th TightVent - 8th venticool Conference: "Ventilation Challenges in a Changing World" held in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 5-6 October 2022

 

Archetypes of public secondary schools in Mediterranean climate. Indoor air quality and comfort field studies

Climate change is a growing global concern and building stock, in particular, is responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases, largely due to its poor energy efficiency. This problem is especially serious in educational buildings, where it is necessary to encourage energy efficient retrofitting under the parameters of nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB), an objective which in Europe has been set for 2050. This is expected to produce economic, energy saving, hygrothermal comfort and health-safety benefits.

The challenge of rating energy efficient IAQ management strategies: welcome to IEA-EBC Annex 86

The energy performance of new and existing residential buildings needs to be radically improved to meet ambitious climate change goals and residential buildings are by far the largest component in the total building stock. A central boundary condition in constructing energy efficient buildings is doing so while maintaining a healthy, acceptable and desirable indoor environment.

Health impacts of indoor air contaminants determined using the DALY metric

Common metrics used for assessing air quality are based on guidelines and/or standards for regulating concentrations that should not be exceeded over a period. Exceeding those values would represent problematic situations. A lack of agreement on appropriate norms or standards deem this approach sub-optimal. Moreover, this approach does not relate a proportion of exceedance to specific health outcomes.

Demonstration of an innovative room based mechanical ventilation system in a renovated Danish apartment building

Ambitious goals regarding CO2 neutrality put the energy renovations of apartment buildings in the top places on the energy efficiency & sustainability agenda in Denmark. Improved airtightness and maximum primary energy requirements imply utilization of ventilation with heat recovery. The control of ventilation installed during renovations often considers a whole dwelling as one climate zone, which neglects differences among individual rooms. Increased insulation and tightness leads to higher sensitivity to solar and occupancy gains, moisture loads and pollutants.

Durability of humidity-based ventilation components after 15 years of operation in French residential buildings – Lab tests

Humidity-based DCV systems have been widely used in France for 35 years and are considered as a reference system, including for low-energy residential buildings. The on-going Performance 2 project delivers the new results of a thirteen-year monitoring in twenty-two social housing apartments. The involved consortium is composed of Cerema, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc and two industrials partners: Aereco and Anjos. 

Pages