INVESTIGATION OF ACTUAL HUMIDITY CONDITIONS IN HOUSES AND EVALUATION OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENT BY FUNGAL INDEX

The characteristics of climate in Japan are hot and humid in summer, with cold and dry winter. For thisreason, mold growing in rooms is common during summer period. On the other hand, in winter, due tospace heating, indoor environment is over-dry as a result of low humidity. This situation is particularlydistinctive in the well-insulated and air-tightened houses.The aim of this study was to understand the current indoor humidity environmental conditions by themeans of long-term measurement data for obtaining the fundamental information to evaluate themeasures to mitigate the dry or humid indoor environment. In addition, the conditions of fungalcontamination influenced by indoor environment were predicted.A detailed long-term field measurement program on energy consumption and indoor thermalenvironment was carried out in 2003, for 80 dwellings (including detached houses and apartments) insix regions of Japan. The data obtained from the field measurement were analyzed and the resultsbased on indoor humidity distribution were reported in this paper.