air quality

Presents a control system for mechanical ventilation of large rooms such as meeting rooms, cinemas, department stores, etc, based on air quality. Gas sensors are used to measure the pollutant levels and regulate the air flow in the room in relation to the number of people, level of tobacco smoke and other pollutants. The CO2 levels are also recorded. The resulting energy saved is given for three Norwegian buildings.

Two bi-level houses in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, of identical design and construction were studied to determine the relationships among air exchange, energy consumption, and indoor pollutants. The experimental house was retrofitted and equip

Summarises the issues discussed at the Indoor Air '84 conference in Stockholm. The main topics include sick buildings, organic compounds, formaldehyde, combustion products, and radon.

As airtight houses become more popular across Canada, reduced ventilation rates may lead to poor air quality and high humidity problems in these dwellings. This paper reviews the needs for ventilation, ventilation methods and systems, and current codes and standards, particularly with respect to airtight and energy efficient houses. Current research in Canada is reviewed and considerations for a new ventilation standard are discussed.

The state of practice in Canada, as described in the literature, concerning ventilation, air distribution and air quality in warehouses and light industrial buildings is reviewed. There is little documented field information available. Modelling processes have not been developed which can provide thenecessary detail. Measurement of air flows, both in the field and in models, is difficult. The regulatory environment in Canada allows considerable innovation in developing conservation procedures.

The design and calibration of a passive sampler operating according to the diffusion principle and its application to the analysis of indoor air are described. Taking aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons as representative pollutants, it is demonstrated that at constant concentration, the amount of substance trapped by the sampler is a linear function of the time of exposure. An equation is given relating this amount of substance to the mean pollutant concentration. The detection limit is of an order of 300 microgram/(m3.h).

This document reports on analytical work carried out in cooperation among three European laboratories. The purpose of this work was to carry out a first assessment on the performances of passive samplers for organic vapours when used in indoor air pollution monitoring and simultaneously to evaluate theinterlaboratory agreement on low concentration analysis of a variety of volatile organic compounds. Two types of passive samplers were thus exposed in the different facilities and replicate specimens were analysed at each of the three laboratories.

The quantitative determination of formaldehyde in air using the fluorimetric acetylacetone method is described. Known concentrations of formaldehyde were generated and collected in water using absorbers. The sampling rate was 0.5 l/min, and the sampling volumes varied from 2 to 20 l, depending on theconcentration level. Under these conditions the entire sampling and the analytical method were evaluated over a range of 0.2-1.7 mg formaldehyde per m3 of air.

The emission of organic gases and vapours of solvent type from 42 commonly used building materials was measured under standard atmospheric conditions.