The traditional ways of maintaining cleanliness, temperature and moisture level in anoperation theatre (OT) usually use larger HVAC system and keep both the heating andcooling functions operating at the same time. The temperature and moisture level are thusunder control at the cost of tremendous amount of wasted energy. Incorporating the HVACsystem with the newly developed secondary return air system, the system capacity can bereduced while the energy efficiency can be increased. In this paper, concepts of the secondaryreturn air system are described.
An assessment concept is being developed for iterative design of office buildings withintegrated energy and indoor comfort solutions. An indexing system has been devised thatincorporates environmental effects of energy use with thermal and atmospheric indoor climatein a score on a common scale from 0 to 100%, called the Eco-factor. Only the operativephase of the building life cycle is considered. Only indoor climate aspects that are closelyinter-related with energy use are considered: Thermal comfort and Indoor Air Quality.
A Personalised Ventilation system provides occupants with means of adjusting their individualthermal environment and of achieving good indoor air quality. The individual control ofenvironmental variables makes it possible to compensate for the differences between people withregard to their requirements. In most tropical designs, the air-conditioning and mechanicalventilation system maintains the indoor spaces at cold temperatures in the vicinity of 21 C.
Knowledge about gender-relate exposures is rare. Therefore, based on a patient collective in environmental medicine gender specific aspects of surrounding exposures were investigated. Questionnaire data of 656 women and 501 men, who have to be affected by environment-related health disorders were retrospectively analyzed. Gender specific differences and risk factors were determined by frequency distributions. Significant differences between women and men could be shown for exposures at home and workplace, for behavioral risk factors, and for health effects.
Since 1987, in Germany advisory centers for environmental medicine were founded. In the present study the relevance of indoor air problems in a patient collective in environmental medicine was investigated. Questionnaire data of 772 patients, who consulted the former Consulting Center of Environmental Medicine (CEM) of the Medical Institute of Environmental Hygiene at the Heinrich Heine-University Duesseldorf because of the suspicion of environment-related health disorders, were retrospectively examined regarding exposures and health effects.
Our study conducted serial measurements of indoor air quality and sick building syndrome (SBS) of employees in eight air-conditioned office buildings to examine the association between indoor air pollution and the reporting symptoms of SBS. Airborne microbes, carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM10), formaldehyde, and total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) were measured in every test space within the buildings. Frequency of reporting symptoms and other environmental variables were documented by self-administrated questionnaires.
Microbial sampling was used to study indoor air quality in a building where the employees had complained about IAQ for many years. In addition, the symptoms and complaints of the employees working in the building were surveyed by MM40-questionnaire. Workers complained about dust, dirt, dry, stuffy air and unpleasant odor. Tiredness and irritation of upper respiratory tracts and eyes were the most common symptoms. IgG antibodies against microbes commonly found in water damaged buildings, were determined from the serum samples of the employees.
Today, tracer gas is used as a reliable means to examine various queries related to mechanical systems. Prerequisite is the safe and routine handling of the relevant analysis methods. Apart from some basic considerations, the present paper includes results of ventilation efficiency studies and a comparison of different systems on the basis of characteristic parameters.
As part of a graduation project, a typical ‘sick’ office building was subject to a retrofit R&D programme. It concerned a typical 1975 building with a sealed façade and a central climate control system with induction units. An interview of the some of the
Current remedial actions to buildings with indoor-environmental problems do not seem to decrease efficiently residents’ symptoms typical of the sick building syndrome (SBS). Apart from potentially unsuccessful renovations (cases), the cause could be that
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