English

This presentation will summarize the last forty-five years of indoor air quality (IAQ) studies, investigations and research from the first energy crisis in the USA in the 1970’s to the latest issues with regards to climate change and its effect on IAQ. The initial occupant complaints about the quality of the air in buildings coincided with changes in infiltration and ventilation in buildings. In particular, the first ASHRAE 62 Standard was issued in 1973, and then substantially changed in the 1981 version.

ADEME is a public organisation to implement public policy in the areas of the environment, energy and sustainable development. ADEME is supervised by the department of ecological transition, the department of higher education and the department of research and innovation. Through management of thesis or export of French innovations for instance, ADEME organises and contributes to the financing of research and innovation to help ecological transition and fight climatic change.  

The French indoor air quality observatory (OQAI) was set up by the French authorities in 2001 with the objective to collect data on indoor pollutants in various indoor environments to be used for public policies. Funded exclusively by public funding, the OQAI is coordinated by the scientific and technical center for building (CSTB) and involved an extensive network of partners across France in charge of the field campaigns and the laboratory analyses. To date, nationwide surveys were carried out in dwellings (2003-2005), schools (2013-2017), and office buildings (2013-2017).

In a sealed building with tight facades, conditions for a good indoor air quality and comfortable conditions must be guaranteed all the time especially for employees. This paper deals with the case of a specific retrofitted building without any openings that immediately shows many difficulties to maintain good indoor air quality in some parts of the occupied volume. An assessment of ductwork and HVAC system performance was first realized, conducted by the SNIA (National Airport Engineering Service).

An accurate temperature gradient calculation is essential for displacement ventilation (DV) system design, since it directly relates to the calculation of supply air flow rate. Several simplified nodal models were developed and implemented in the various building simulation programmes in order to estimate the temperature stratification in rooms with displacement ventilation. However, the most commonly used models do not count the types and locations of the typical heat loads in rooms with displacement ventilation.