12 January 2023, Webinar – Sleeping Environment IAQ and Sleep Quality

Our bodies need good rest and sleep as part of regular recuperation to enable us to perform our normal activities in life.  Sleep is an integral part of human life and the importance and significance of good bedroom IAQ, indoor air pollution, ventilation as well as bedroom thermal environment during sleep cannot be emphasized more. Yet, there is a paucity of information in the scientific literature in this regard, especially pertaining to IAQ in sleeping environments and sleep quality.  Are our bedrooms adequately ventilated at all times to maintain good IAQ?

English

Recordings from the EBC Webinar of November 9th

The recordings and the slides of the recent EBC Webinar "Building Energy Efficiency and Indoor Air Quality – Building Energy Codes, Data Utilization for Improving Energy Efficiency, and Air Cleaning" are now available online at: https://www.aivc.org/event/9-november-2021-webinar-building-energy-efficiency-and-indoor-air-quality-building-energy

English

Development of a procedure for estimating the parameters of mechanistic VOC emission source models from chamber testing data

In order to evaluate the impacts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions from building materials on the indoor air quality beyond the standard chamber test conditions and test period, mechanistic emission source models have been developed in the past. However, very limited data are available for the required model parameters including the initial concentration (Cm0), in-material diffusion coefficient (Dm), partition coefficient (Kma), and convective mass transfer coefficient (km).

Development of a Procedure for Estimating the Parameters of Mechanistic Emission Source Models from Chamber Testing Data

In order to evaluate the impacts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions from building materials on the indoor pollution load and indoor air quality beyond the standard chamber test conditions and test period, mechanistic emission source models have been developed in the past. However, very limited data are available for the required model parameters including the initial concentration (Cm0), in-material diffusion coefficient (Dm), partition coefficient (Kma), and convective mass transfer coefficient (km).

IEA EBC Annex 68 - Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings – Setting the Metrics

This paper presents the initial reflections in the frame of Subtask 1 – Setting the Metrics of the IEA EBC Annex 68 – Indoor Air Quality Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings. The first step of IEA Annex 68 aims at summarizing the current knowledge on target pollutants for residential buildings and at evaluating indoor air quality (IAQ), i.e. how to define indices that provide useful information allowing to achieve low risks for health in indoor spaces, and how to enable the comparison of solutions for achieving high IAQ taking into account energy efficiency.

Introduction: Why performance-based assessment methods? Overview of the needs and the possibilities

In future building regulations 2020, building performance is going to be extended to global performance, including indoor air quality (IAQ). In the energy performance (EP) field, successive regulations pushed for a "performance-based" approach, based on an energy consumption requirement at the design stage. Nevertheless, ventilation regulations throughout the world are still mostly based on prescriptive approaches, setting airflows requirements. A performance-based approach for ventilation would insure that ventilation is designed to avoid risks for occupant’s health. 

Performance-based assessment methods for ventilation systems: Overview of on-going work in France and in Europe

In the field of energy performance, successive regulations pushed a "performance-based" approach, based at least on an energy consumption requirement at the design stage for heating and/or cooling systems (Spekkink 2005). Nevertheless, in the field of building ventilation, regulations throughout the world are mainly still based on “prescriptive” approaches, using airflows or air change rates requirements.  

HVAC and VOCs: interaction between building systems and indoor VOC concentrations

HVAC systems in newly built or extensively renovated dwellings were all developed with the aim for energy saving with equal or better comfort. However, these systems (floor heating and DCV systems) have certain characteristics which increase the emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and give VOCs the chance to accumulate to higher concentrations. This interaction is investigated based on dynamic simulations using a temperature and humidity dependent VOC emission model. 

Practical use of the Annex68 IAQ Dashboard

The present paper aims at illustrating the practical use of the Annex68 IAQ Dashboard. To this end, numerical simulations have been performed to provide useable data about the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of a low-energy detached house. The dashboard has been used to compare three possible solutions of ventilation systems commonly found in French residential buildings i.e. natural ventilation using vertical ducts for extraction, self-regulated exhaust and balanced mechanical ventilation.

40 Years of Modeling Airflows

The modelling of air flows to investigate indoor air quality and energy issues has been a topic at the AIVC for all of its 40 years. Models have been developed that range in complexity from single-zone algebraic expressions that can be calculated by hand to complex multi-zone approaches that integrate contaminant transport and other functions.

Pages