indoor air quality

This paper presents some results from the Work Package 5 in the HealthVent project supported by the European Commission. One of the objectives of the project has been to review and critically evaluate the existing requirements on ventilation and IAQ defined in national building codes and European standards. The project’s focus has been set on ventilation rates, pollutants, noise, temperature and draft in dwellings, offices, schools and kindergartens. This paper presents a summary of the values given in European regulations and results of comparisons.

The objective of the study is to analyze the relative performance of factors affecting indoor air quality in multi-residential buildings in Korea. A study of the factors affecting indoor air quality is essential for establishing indoor air quality management strategies effectively. To observe the indoor air quality response following a modification of a given parameter sensitivity analysis was performed. The factors examined for the analysis include; wall+ceiling paper, adhesive for wall/ceiling paper, floor material, adhesive for floor material, and ventilation rate.

In Korea, in 2006, the building regulation was revised to apply 0.7 ACH (Air Change Rate) ventilation systems to improve indoor air quality in residential apartment housing. The purpose of this study is to evaluate energy requirement and indoor contaminant level characteristics for residential building applying with sensor-based DCV (Demand Control Ventilation) system.

This study analyzed the effect of intermittent operation of ventilation system on changes of indoor air pollutants' levels through field measurements. The changes of indoor air pollutants' levels, such as, CO2, PM10, TVOCs, and HCHO were monitored during 24 hours at each ventilation condition. One group was the operation time: 2 hours, 8hours, and 24 hours. The other group was the changes of start time of ventilation, before noon, after noon, and night, while the ventilation was operated only two hours.

Child care center, one of the public facilities, has recently been increased. It is because of the government's childbirth policy. In particular, infants and children who use this place are frequently exposed in danger because of their biological characteristics. They stay in child care center over 7 hours a day in average. Therefore, the importance of the child care center's indoor air has been increased. Thus, survey and investigation of the child care center's indoor air are conducted in this study.

Indentifying pollutants that pose a potential hazard indoors is an important first step to reducing risks. We reviewed key published studies reporting measurements of chemical pollutants in residences. Summary results were compiled and used to calculate representative mid-range and upper-bound concentrations relevant to chronic exposures for over 300 pollutants and peak concentrations relevant to acute exposures for a few episodic activity-associated pollutants.

The concentration levels of particulate matter (PM), airborne fungi, carbon dioxide as well as temperature and relative humidity were investigated in the indoor and outdoor environment of two schools in Athens, Greece during the period January to May 2011. The overall concentration ranges of the indoor measured pollutants were: PM10: 14.92-166.18 μg/m3, PM2.5: 3.16-31.27 μg/m3, PM1: 0.72-9.01 μg/m3, UFP: 4188-63093 pt/cm3, total airborne fungi: 28-2098 CFU/m3 and CO2: 389-1717 ppm.

Passive stack ventilation is a key feature of sustainable building design and has particular potential for use in tall, multi-storey buildings. However, natural ventilation flows through multiply connected spaces may not behave as expected. Recirculation of air through occupied parts of the building and bidirectional exchange flows at ventilation outlets may compromise the intended ventilation scheme resulting in an uncomfortable indoor environment.

Based on the theoretical and experimental studies of natural ventilation, the performance of natural ventilators has been analysed. Four types of natural window ventilators and three types of wall ventilators were studied. Experimental results show that the natural ventilators have a greater ventilation effect whilst meeting national and local standards of ventilation for residential buildings in heating or cooling seasons.  The installation of such devices can be a compromise between ventilation and energy loss.

This paper reports on research carried out to develop natural ventilation control strategies for densely occupied learning spaces with the intention of improving indoor air quality and heating energy consumption. Investigations were carried out for two test cases according to the characteristics given in CIBSE Guide A (2006) and Building Bulletin (BB) 101 (UK Department for Education, 2006). The performance of these test cases were assessed using dynamic thermal simulation with fixed CO2 set-points, based on which opening dampers are controlled.