Two new units, the olf and the decipol, are introduced to quantify air pollution sources and air pollution perceived by humans indoors and outdoors. The olf is introduced to quantify pollution sources. One olf is the emission rate of air pollutants (bioeffluents) from a standard person. Any other pollution source is quantified by the number of standard persons (olfs) required to cause the same dissatisfaction as the actual pollution source. The olf unit is analogous to lumen and watt for light and noise sources.
Annex VIII is a two year task sharing project, started offically in 1984. Although some research had already been done on the problem of inhabitant's behaviour with regard to ventilation, none had gone so far as to access whether and how the ventilation behaviour can be modified in order to save energy and by taking into account the conflicting requirements, energy conservation and adequate indoor air quality.