standard

Pollutants found in indoor air are often several times higher than outdoors. Indoor air pollutants cause effects ranging from odor, annoyance, and irritation to illness, cancer, and even death. Since people spend the majority of their time indoors, it is important to recognize and control indoor air pollution. Some indoor air pollutants also adversely affect materials in the building and the building structure itself. The majority of indoor pollution comes from the building itself, its contents, or its occupants and their activities.

This study has done for setting the criteria for emission from building materials and a methodto test for formaldehyde (HCHO). Emission tests from major building products in acontrolled small chamber were performed with a field and laboratory emission cell (FLEC)to evaluate the features of chemical pollutants from those coverings. HURI (Housing &Urban Research Institute) proposed the test method and the emission criteria for HCHO,which considered many dimensions including test results and the influence on the buildingmaterials market.

On the international level, ISO (International Organization for Standardization), CEN (EuropeanCommittee for Standardization) and ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers) are writing and reviewing standards relating to the indoor environment on aregular basis.

The study reviewed each Code/Standard with respect to requirements relating to acommon set of ventilation factors and criteria. The main factors include the following:1. Protection against Depressurization - given the increase in more tightly built homes,how do the differing C/S protect against combustion gas spillage into the dwelling.2. Ventilation Capacity - what are the requirements for total mechanical air changerates, and high and low airflow capacities?3. Contaminant Removal - what exhaust requirements are there for specific rooms inthe dwelling?4.

The intent of this paper is to show that using Equation 6-1 from ASHRAE standard 62 based on occupancy is a non sense if used as a control algorithm in so far as up to now no sensors can physically count each individual in the space. Equation 6-1 describes how to calculate the amount of outdoor air required from an air-handling unit serving multiple spaces for system design purposes.

The CEN TC 156 / WG2 (ventilation for residential buildings) has prepared a new European draft for the test method of Heat Recovery Units (prEN 13141-7). This method should ensure a common way of testing these units all over Europe. In order to determine if the draft procedure is sufficient enough, both VTT and CETIAT has proceeded to some tests according to the new European standard on the same unit. Results on this first intercomparison give interesting data on the test method applied.

CEN/STAR establishes needs for co-normative and pre-normative research in support to CEN standardization. A workshop took place in CETIAT (France) on 23-24 january 2003, its aim was to provide an overview of the trends of research and future standardization for HVAC appliances and to define the needs for pre-normative or co-normative research and interaction with standardization works.

DVC is a new energy saving technology, buildings that use a DVC strategy use CO2 sensors that measure and regulate the amount of outdoor air supplied to the space.Standards and local building codes have been slow to adopt it.Available data suggests that DVC reduces ventilation, heating and cooling load by 10 to 30 %.

The technical literature very often refers to the international standard ISO 7730. That reference seems to have been accepted too quickly several years ago, without consulting the experts of the profession and without a real critical examination.Now we are facing a difficult situation because the profession recommends (and it is right) temperatures that are lower of several degrees to the ones advised by the standard. Furthermore, an important number of concrete researches demonstrate the very big uncertainties of the data the standard relies on. A serious warning is necessary.

Today the term of comfort includes the different aspects of indoor air quality, thermal, acoustical and visual comfort.Standardisation working groups have already worked in those different fields, and some standards already exist but it will certainly take several years to adapt them according to the countries and continents. Anyway environmental quality is a subjective perception and depends on many interactions. The aim is to insure comfort to the majority of people, but a personal adaptation of the user will always be necessary.