Air conditioning is often singled out as the main culprit in cases of sick building syndrome, but as Timothy Southfield explains, users need to get their houses in order.

The paper describes the characteristics of different types of pollutant sources in the way that they are experienced in a fixed locality in an urban area. The locality in this sense can also be a building or part of a building (a ventilation inlet for example). The most important parameter is the distance of the polluting source and therefore the characteristic features of sources at different distances are discussed.

The objective of this one-day seminar was to address the issues of design and provision of low energy ventilation strategies for non-domestic buildings located in urban and city centres where external air and noise pollution may be of prime concern. Current concerns about energy usage and C02 emissions have led to an increasing number of buildings, both new builds and major refurbishments, employing low-energy ventilation strategies such as natural or fan-assisted ventilation.

The paper describes the characteristics of different types of pollutant sources in the way that they are experienced in a fixed locality in an urban area. The locality in this sense can also be a building or part of a building (a ventilation inlet for example). The most important parameter is the distance of the polluting source and therefore the characteristic features of sources at different distances are discussed.

Periodic or spot check measurements of indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters leave blanks in a building data profile upon which misleading or incomplete conclusions may be made. It is difficult and unwise to make decisions regarding IAQ diagnostics and corrective actions with limited data. Datalogging fills in the blanks left by periodic measurements to complete the profile thus making it a powerful tool for good building diagnostics.