Indoor environment quality in European office buildings.

Within the European project Joule II - Indoor Air Quality Audit, 56 office buildings were audited during the winter season 1993-1994 in Europe. The purpose of the audit is to harvest information on ventilation and indoor air quality in relation with occupant health and energy consumption in office buildings. The audit concerns the building itself and its technical equipment, indoor air quality and the opinion of the occupants on the comfort and health condition. To obtain synchronous information, the audit was performed within a working day, without perturbing too much the work in the visited firm. Some results from this audit are presented. In particular, it is shown that good working conditions can be obtained with low energy consumption, without air conditioning and with low air flow rates. Recent knowledge allows us to plan user- and energy-friendly buildings and systems. In addition, it appears that building related symptoms appear more frequently in open office buildings that in small office buildings.