Fresh air has a very important role in indoor air quality.This study aims at quantifying the costs and the gains of an increase of the ventilation rate, in an office building. Results show that a big increase of the ventilation rate leads to an increase of the installation costs, but to no change of the energy costs. The additional costs may be paid back quickly due to the productivity improvement.
In developed countries, the concentrations of indoor pollutants are very similar to those outdoors. 3 basic strategies are proposed to reduce occupant exposure to indoor contaminants : 1. Building air tightening and pressure management2. Ventilation and air filtration3. Contaminant removalIn poor countries, the use of advanced ventilation and filtration techniques is not feasible at all, natural ventilation may be one of the more effective solutions
During a field campaign 13 classrooms at 4 different high-schools of the Provincia di Torino and 4 typical medium sized university classrooms of the Politecnico di Torino were monitored during winter and spring season to analyse the environmental quality. Measurements along with subjective surveys concerning indoor air quality, thermal, acoustical, and visual aspects were performed during class time.
The comparison of those results from the subjective and the objective approach is presented.
Standard 62.2. is the first and only recognized Indoor Air Quality standard for residential buildings in United States. It provides a variety of ways to improve at minimal cost the indoor air quality. This standard became official on October 2003. It may be applied to both new and existing houses.
The adverse health effects and costs of IAQ problems could be reduced significantly with proper use and maintenance of buildings and early detection and remediation of problems.Dissemination of information is the key to these savings. Therefore, the Finnish ministries responsible for IAQ decided to launch an education and information campaign IndoorClimate 2002. The activities were coordinated by the Finnish Society of Indoor Air Qualityand Climate (FiSIAQ).
The study was carried out on 30 female subjects exposed in a low-polluting office in either presence or absence of personal computers that had been in service for 3 months. Under each of the two conditions, the persons performed simulated office work using low-polluting PCs. They were found to be strong indoor pollution sources, having a negative impact on perceived air quality, on performance of office work and on some SBS symptoms.
In the course of laboratory investigation we examined the adaptability of naive panels onindoor air quality measurements. We made the investigation on a measuring team of 45participants. We examined the measurement precision and standard deviation of themeasuring team with the help of Olf-Box. Our results show that despite the economicefficiency the number of persons in a measuring team cannot be reduced to less than 30subjects. We built a measuring system to examine the emission of indoor used materials.
A nationwide survey on indoor air quality will be set up in France in 2003-2004. The aim ofthe survey is to assess household exposure to indoor air pollutants. The target population isthe national housing stock of approximately 24 million permanently occupied housing units.A nationally representative sample of dwellings will be selected based on a three-stagesampling design. At the first stage, the Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) are categorized basedon French territorial divisions. The second stage of the design is the sampling of segmentswithin the PSUs.
Two similar blocks of flats have been built for people with respiratory diseases. The buildingshave a clean and effective ventilation system and low emitting building materials. Theventilation system is a centralized supply and exhaust air system, either based on demand(Building A) or user controlled (Building B). Total volatile organic compound (TVOC) levelsand concentrations of ammonia and formaldehyde were measured in one apartment on each ofthe six floors of both buildings before occupants moved in and after 3 and 7 months and afterone year of occupancy.
Login