indoor air quality

According to the International Energy Agency, buildings represent over one-third of total final energy consumption. Thus, a more sustainable future begins with low energy buildings which must combine comfort and function using passive systems and new evolving technologies. Policies to reduce building energy consumption and carbon emissions have been developed worldwide during the last decades.

The objectives of Subtask 4 are to develop design and control strategies for energy efficient ventilation in residential buildings which ensure high indoor air quality. The strategies must go beyond the current common practice and actively utilize recent research findings regarding indoor air pollutants and combined heat, air and moisture transfer as well as benefit from recent advances in sensor technology and controls.

The objectives of Subtask 3 Modeling are to improve the understanding and develop prediction models on the impacts of outdoor pollutants, thermal environment, building materials and envelope, and indoor furnishing and occupant activities on the indoor air quality, and the energy necessary to achieve the desired IAQ level in residential buildings, considering the IAQ metrics and pollution loads to be developed in Subtask 1 and 2, respectively.

First the Subtask will organize a literature survey and make researcher contacts to gather relevant data and existing knowledge on major pollutant sources and loads in buildings, including models. Laboratory testing and model setup to provide examples of new types of data which shall be beneficial to improve knowledge on combined effects that must be taken into consideration in order to achieve new paradigms for energy optimal operation of buildings.

Subtask 1 of IEA EBC Annex 68 will aim at defining the metrics to enable a proper consideration of both energy and IAQ benefit in building design and operation

The overall objective of the IEA EBC Annex 68 is to provide scientific basis usable for optimal and practically applicable design and control strategies for high Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in residential buildings. Naturally, those strategies should ensure minimal possible energy use. The project aims to gather existing and provide new data on pollution sources in buildings, model the indoor hydrothermal conditions and air quality as well as thermal systems, and will look to ways to optimize the provision of ventilation and air-conditioning.

This paper describes Post Occupancy Evaluation survey and physical measurements of five families living for one year or longer in five houses located in Germany, Austria, France and UK, all part of the Model Home 2020 project. The houses are built according to Active House principles and focus on high performance on indoor environmental quality, energy performance and environmental impact. The survey is carried out seasonally during the test year when the family lives in the house to capture seasonal variations. Physical measurements were made in all main rooms of the houses.

The trend toward minimizing ventilation of houses in order to reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling leads to an increase in indoor air pollution. The deterioration of indoor air quality (IAQ) negatively affects human health, safety, productivity and comfort. In order to evaluate the scale of this influence IAQ assessment has to be performed. However, the IAQ itself is not well defined and a number of parameters are considered as its indicators. In this work we compared carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds as indicators of indoor air quality.

The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of Legionella pneumophila in the surface dust of the air ducts of central air conditioning systems and evaluate its effects on indoor air quality. Thirty dust samples were collected from thirty air ducts and analyzed using real-time TaqMan PCR targeting the mipgene.

Indoor temperature and humidity conditions as well as CO2 and airborne mould concentrations were measured in four manor schools in the Estonian cold climate. Based on these measurements, the influence of the indoor climate on the performance of schoolwork was assessed. The indoor environmental quality in manor schools turned out to be quite poor due to the inadequate performance of ventilation and heating systems. Intermittent stove heating was found to secure the minimum temperature in general but in winter thermal comfort was not always guaranteed.