English

The Environmental Protection Department conducted a territory-wide indoor air qualitysurvey in Hong Kong. The report released in 1997 confirmed that one-third of the sampledbuildings were classified as sick buildings. Many of the causes could be attributed tounacceptable indoor air quality (IAQ). In response to this, the Indoor Air Quality ManagementGroup distributed a Guidance Notes for the Management of Indoor Air Quality in Offices andPublic Places for public consultation. It includes an annual IAQ certification scheme.

Regrettably, buildings often do not perform as expected or wanted by the users. Especiallywith regard to indoor environment, dissatisfaction is occurring frequently.

Life-cycle costs of investments for improving air quality in an office building were comparedwith the resulting revenues from increased office productivity; benefits from reduced healthcosts and sickness absence were not included. The building was simulated in a cold, amoderate and a hot climate. It was ventilated by a constant air volume system with heatrecovery. The air quality was improved by increasing the outdoor air supply rate and byreducing the pollution loads.

This study calculates the effect of permeable hygroscopic structures on IAQ and thermalcomfort in a cold climate. Simulations are carried out for a detached house and application ofcriteria for assessment of indoor climate is given. The results show that hygroscopic structuressignificantly decreased the fluctuation of indoor relative humidity. In the winter,hygroscopicity had only minor effect on indoor climate, but in the summer, hygroscopicityhad some effect on thermal comfort, which was improved at lower ventilation rates.

Macroeconomic analyses indicate a high cost to society of a deteriorated indoor climate. Thefew example calculations performed to date indicate that measures taken to improve IEQ arehighly cost-effective when health and productivity benefits are considered. We believe thatcost-benefit analyses of building designs and operations should routinely incorporate healthand productivity impacts.

This study estimated the health, energy and economic benefits of an economizer ventilationcontrol system that increases outside air supply during mild weather to save energy. A modelof the influence of ventilation rate on airborne transmission of respiratory illnesses was usedto extend the limited data relating ventilation rate with illness and sick leave. An energysimulation model calculated ventilation rates and energy use versus time for an office buildingin Washington, D.C., with fixed minimum outdoor air supply rates, with and without aneconomizer.

The presence of high levels of urban pollution imposes at the international level the need tothink again about the type of ventilation systems in residential buildings. This has to be donein order to provide a better IAQ level. Natural ventilation cannot guarantee either the correctchange of air inside the buildings or a good IAQ level, as there is no possibility of checkingthe supply and extraction airflow rates in any thermo-hygrometric condition.

Until recently, the air quality did not play a major role in the planning of buildings. Air qualitywas simply understood to be synonymous with pollution-free and safe air. This approach,however, omitted consideration of how to achieve the well-being of the occupants. Asresearch has shown, elimination of pollutants is far from being sufficient and does notsignificantly reduce the dissatisfaction rate of building occupants. More recently, research hasaddressed the occupants perception of indoor air with the goal of increasing their satisfactionrate.

Evaluation of emissions from building products is mainly focused on comparison betweenexposition concentrations of identified individual organic compounds and health criteria. Noadequate integrated criterion is available for interaction and mixture effects. Besides,everyone performs daily evaluation of perceived air quality. Human beings through theirsenses, for example, olfaction and chemesthesis, are able to achieve a synthetic response to aglobal mixture of compounds.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in workplace and residential environments has been a concern ofpeople. Recently, Ministry of Environment in Korea has recognized the potential risk on thehealth effects related to indoor air pollution at home. Therefore, the purpose of this study wasto measure the indoor air pollutants of IAQ at different homes and investigate the perceptionof IAQ recognition at home through a questionnaire survey in Seoul.We estimated the IAQ of six selected homes based on site region and housing type.