Experimental study concerning the reduction of VOCs concentration in apartment buildings.

Indoor air pollution in residential environments caused by chemicals, such as formaldehyde and

volatile organic compounds, which are resulting from the reduction in air exchange rates by the increase of air-tightness in building envelopes aiming at improving the energy efficiency for heating and air-conditioning, and from the introduction of new type building materials like plywood and finishing materials has been drawing public attention in Japan recently. Many field and laboratory test have been conducted in the past year, although the results from those two kinds of test have not reached to combine to each other. In this study we have tested emission rates of building materials in a test chamber, and also conducted a field measurement where the tested materials were used. As a conclusion, we could not find a relationship between the chamber test and the indoor VOC concentration, and could not establish to a mass balance equation. Though as a counterplan at this point continuous ventilation was effective to reduce indoor VOC concentration. Also from the calculation, the target air exchange rate 0.5 (1/h) for air tight residence were too low to control VOC concentration under 300 μg/m3 which Seifert has proposed as target guideline value.