MEASUREMENT AND PREDICTION OF INDOOR MICROENVIRONMENTS FOR THE CONTROL OF BIOCONTAMINANTS

The severe impact on health associated with biocontaminants, such as dust mites, has become increasingly apparent in recent years. Consequently, a considerable effort has taken place to develop biocontaminant growth models and to assess the efficacy of possible psychrometric control measures, involving the modification of room conditions. However this approach is not always successful due to the low correlation between room conditions and those within the microenvironments inhabited by biocontaminants.
Obviously, if accurate growth models are to be developed and psychrometric control measures successfully applied, it will be necessary to distinguish microclimatic conditions from the adjacent ambient conditions.
Whilst the measurement of temperature within microenvironments is feasible, the main restriction has been the lack of a suitable humidity sensor. The authors have sourced a microchip-based humidity sensor which meets a set of appropriate performance criteria for measurements within typical microenvironments. A dynamic heat and moisture transfer model, MATCH, was applied to validate the measurements from laboratory trials. Following a domestic application of the sensors, simulation results were coupled with a model to predict dust mite activity in soft furnishing.