indoor air quality

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards) has through an interagency agreement with the Public Building Service of the General Services Administration performed an evaluation of the thermal and environmental performance of a new Federal office building in Portland OR. The building was constructed during the 1986 and 1987 and occupancy began in August of 1987. This evaluation is part of a research effort by the Center for Building Technology of NIST to develop methods for evaluating advanced technology buildings.

Ventilation, infiltration, indoor air flows and air exchanges determine two aspects of fast growing interest: the energy balance of buildings and the indoor environment. Whilst in the wages of the energy crisis RD (research and development) & D (demonstration) in the different areas had been focused on rational energy use now with view on the public awareness of the environmental situation (outdoors and indoors) also the aspect of indoor air quali ty stimulates widespread RD&D activities.

It is particularly important to be aware of the air flow pattern in a building when determining indoor air quality problems or calculating space conditioning loads for energy consumption. Correct sizing of space conditioning equipment is also dependent upon accurate air flow information. A number of infiltration models have been developed to calculate infiltration-related energy losses and the resulting air flow distribution in both single-zone and multizone buildings.

This report is the first in a series intended to assess residential air-pollution concentrations in the U.S. housing stock.

This paper covers some of the policy options used in the U. S. concerning regulation of building construction. The extensive code system is discussed, and the voluntary standards upon which the codes are usually based. While the codes set out the mandatory requirements, the standards are voluntary only. Some of the important background, research and philosophy of the standards are covered, as well as other information which has been offerred to users to promote the voluntary use of energy conserving strategies which are compatable with acceptable indoor air quality.