IEQ

A significant challenge lies in decarbonising existing residential stock to meet higher energy performance standards, necessitating increased energy retrofit activity. Despite the importance of energy retrofits, challenges arise in maintaining indoor environmental quality. While positive air quality and health benefits have been reported through targeted energy-retrofit activities, there are also numerous cases where indoor pollutant concentrations increase post-retrofit.

The Book of Proceedings of the 43^rd AIVC - 11^th TightVent - 9^th venticool Conference: "Ventilation, IEQ and health in sustainable buildings" held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 4-5 October 2023.

The Presentations at the 43^rd AIVC - 11^th TightVent - 9^th venticool Conference: "Ventilation, IEQ and health in sustainable buildings" held in Copenhagen, Denmark on 4-5 October 2023.

Due to global warming, severe problems of buildings overheating during summer in temperate and hot climates arise. Thus, there is an increasing use of air conditioning. However, alternative passive and soft cooling systems exist to address comfort and energy savings issues, such as natural ventilation or ceiling fans, that consume less energy. Although they are well-known today, their use remains under-enhanced.

Office buildings are significant contributors to energy consumption and greenhouse emissions, and it is obvious that office building occupants and their behavior play an essential role in building energy performance. However, how buildings, respectively, their indoor environment, influence building occupant´s behavior, wellbeing, and productivity is not so clear and easy to predict. The main problem is that this correlation is very subjective and influenced by many factors.

Sleep is essential for multiple aspects of a person’s well-being and can be affected by a person’s physical and mental state in addition to the environment they sleep in. To date, the majority of research analyzing the relationship between a person’s sleep quality and indoor environment has focused on environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, light, and noise. However, in recent years, a few key studies have identified indoor air quality (IAQ) as a potential contributor to sleep quality.

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) inactivates viral aerosols in indoor environments. Upper room UVGI systems use wall or ceiling mounted fixtures to create a disinfection zone above the occupied zone. The performance of upper room UVGI systems varies with indoor airflow induced by mechanical ventilation and thermal plumes from occupants, which carries contaminated air into the disinfection zone where viral aerosols are partially inactivated before circulating back into the breathing zone.