indoor air quality

More and more single-family houses are being retrofitted to achieve better energy efficiency levels. In this retrofitting process, the building envelope's airtightness is usually improved, and a ventilation system becomes necessary to create and sustain a healthy indoor air quality (IAQ). However, in France, as in many other western countries, ventilation requirements exist for new dwellings but not for residential retrofitting.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have expressed the need for practical ventilation guidelines to maintain acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) in the public care sector, where vulnerable groups reside. The aim of this paper is to establish such guidelines dedicated to old and newly built psychological care homes and child day care centres in Flanders (Belgium). For each sector, a representative simulation model was designed in Modelica.

The objective of this study is to assess the ability to mitigate the airborne particle concentration in a mechanically ventilated meeting room with stand-alone air cleaners (ACs) as function of the amount and type of devices, the total airflow rate, the location(s) of the device(s) in the room and their flow pattern. Six commercially available ACs, selected to be representative of the French market, are included in the study, each featuring distinct airflow patterns for both air inlet and outlet.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is increasingly accepted as a leading factor in human health, and the ventilation of our indoor spaces is a key modifier of IAQ as the principal means by which indoor pollutants are diluted. Knowledge of the ventilation rate is essential for understanding and modelling our indoor environment, yet quantifying the ventilation rate for regular operational spaces remains a challenge.

The field of building ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) often employs indoor CO2 concentrations as an indicator of outdoor air ventilation rates and, in some cases, as a contaminant impacting human health and comfort. Many of these applications require CO2 emission rates from building occupants (VCO2), which can be predicted based on occupant characteristics (e.g., body mass, sex, age) and activity level (e.g., sleeping, exercise, resting). In some applications, this information is fairly well known.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant emphasis on improving indoor air quality (IAQ), particularly within hospital buildings. Despite developments in integrated central advanced mechanical ventilation and filtration technologies in new hospital buildings, challenges persist in installing them in existing and old hospital buildings relying on traditional natural ventilation.

Ensuring acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) is critical for managing built environments. This is done by ventilating spaces with outdoor air to keep indoor pollutants like CO2, humidity, particulate matter, and VOCs within healthy levels. The effectiveness of ventilation strategies depends on factors like occupancy, pollutant types, and air terminal devices, which can be influenced by outdoor air quality, especially in urban areas with particulate matter and NOx. Ventilation devices can operate with constant airflow or adjust based on occupancy.

Ventilation impacts the quality of the indoor environment. Indoor air quality (IAQ) contributes to the overall personal exposure of occupants of a building to certain pollutants and is therefore an important environmental determinant of health. Research shows that European citizens spend on average 90% of their time indoors. The Flemish government, and more specifically the Flemish Department of Environment & Spatial Development, has been conducting research on IAQ in homes and schools to inform and develop policy since 2007.

Smart ventilation in residential buildings has gained rising attention recently for the benefits of reducing energy consumption and improving indoor environmental quality. This paper presents a review of the smart ventilation in residential buildings papers published from January 2017 to August 2023, as a continuation of (Guyot, Sherman, and Walker 2018) who reviewed the publications in this area up to 2016. A systematic approach was used following the PRISMA protocol.

Improving air quality in existing classrooms can be difficult if retrofitting a mechanical ventilation system is considered too expensive or cannot be implemented due to other reasons, e.g., heritage protection. Especially in the cold winter months, window airing initiated by pupils or teachers is often not sufficient.