Steering Committee Sessions

Monday, September 12, 2016

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 2B
Demand-Controlled Ventilation: Assessment Methods and Potential

Presidential Ballroom (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Rémi Carrié, Ph.D., ICEE
Context

Demand-Controlled Ventilation is a ventilation strategy where the airflow rate is governed by parameters reflecting the actual building use such as pollutants concentration (humidity, CO2, VOCs), people count or presence. By increasing or reducing the amount of air depending on the actual needs, these systems have in theory great potential compared to constant airflow systems for reducing both people's exposure to contaminants and energy use and for managing peak electricity demand. 

Objectives

The objectives of this session are to address the following questions: 

- What is the potential of DCVs to relieve the electricity grid?

- Do these system work well in practice?

- What are the parameters affecting their performance in the field?

- How can we compare the performance of these systems with constant airflow systems?

- What are the factors influencing the energy and IAQ performance assessment of these systems?

Programme

  1. What are the key parameters influencing the performance of DCVs ? Lessons learnt from the field and existing characterization methods. Marc Jardinier, AERECO, France (20 min)
  2. Discussion  (10 min)
  3. Smart ventilation : theoretical requirements, potentials, and practical issues. Ian Walker, LBNL, USA (20 min)
  4. Discussion (10 min)

1  Demand-Controlled Ventilation: Managing Its Key Parameters to Challenge IAQ and Energy Aspects

Emmanuel Val, AERECO
Jean-Luc Savin, AERECO
High air volume constant rates and demand-controlled airflows are considered to be the most efficient ventilation strategies to manage IAQ. The first one is the most widespread but it often requires heat recovery, then more electricity and more complex installations and maintenance. In turn, the demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) strategy has the potential to conciliate easily IAQ and energy aspects. Nevertheless, its performance is highly dependent from several key parameters such as the sensor’s types, the level of control and detection, the functional algorithm, the accuracy, the long-term reliability and the level of maintenance to name a few.

2  Smart Ventilation: Theoretical Requirements, Potentials and Practical Issues

Iain Walker, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
In order to reduce ventilation loads smart ventilation approaches are being developed that use the principle of "equivalence" to allow time shifted ventilation to have the same IAQ effects as constant ventilation. Time shifting allows us to ventilate when temperature and humidity differences between inside and outside are lower, avoid times of peak utility demand and periodic outdoor pollutant events, such as high particle counts during commuter times near busy roads or high ozone concentrations. This presentation discusses the equivalence principle and demonstrates some of the energy and peak demand savings that can be accomplished using smart ventilation.

11:15 AM-12:15 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 2C
The Policymaker’s Perspective: Exploring How Congress, the Federal Government and States Strive to Improve IAQ

Roosevelt (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Mark Ames, ASHRAE
Indoor air quality can be a difficult issue for policymakers to develop and implement policies that improve IAQ, yet much activity does occur to protect the public from airborne containments. This unique panel will explore how the federal government, Congress, and states address and view IAQ from legislative, and regulatory and non-regulatory perspectives.

Presenters:

  • Janet McCabe, Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation, US Environmental Protection Agency

  • Cole Stanton, Vice President, Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) Chair, IAQA Government Affairs Committee Vice Chair, IAQA Chapter Relations Committee

  • Mark Ames, Senior Manager of Federal Government Affairs, ASHRAE

1  The Federal Government’s Role in IAQ

Janet McCabe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
IAQ is a multifaceted public health issue spanning many different areas and agencies. This presentation explores how EPA and the federal government addresses the complex world of IAQ.

2  How States Address IAQ

Cole Stanton, Indoor Air Quality Association
States address IAQ through a wide variety of legislation and regulations. This presentation helps attendees understand the varied ways that states approach IAQ.

3  Congress’ Role in Addressing IAQ

Mark Ames, ASHRAE
Congress develops legislation through a complex array of committees, each with their own jurisdiction. Because IAQ impacts many different aspects of society, IAQ is addressed by virtually all congressional committees. This presentation describes how these factors make legislating on IAQ a challenging task.

2:15 PM-3:30 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 3C
Where Are We Going with IAQ Metrics?

Kennedy (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Max H. Sherman, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
Indoor Air Quality is often defined by ventilation rates. It is sometimes qualitatively defined by a mix of acceptability criteria. Neither of these is an actual operational definition of IAQ. In order to optimize the value of IAQ, it is necessary to have one or more quantitative metrics that can combine disparate factors together to define a total harm or a total acceptability. In this way engineering trade-offs can be made to jointly optimize IAQ with other factors such as energy or peak power. A new generation of standards could be based on these kinds of approaches. Several research groups have been addressing this issue from various directions. This session will provide a discussion of the State of the Art of IAQ Metrics and explore where the topic is going.

Session will start off with a presentation by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, that will describe what LBL is currently doing to develop an IAQ score. Several questions will be raised about the use and structure of such a score that can be addressed as part of a panel discussion. The panel will include authors of relevant papers presented elsewhere in the conference: Tom Ben-David, Andrew Persily and Kevin Teichman. Each of those three panel member will start off with a 5 minute summary of their views of future and then the rest of the time will be spent in Q&A.

1.00  LBL's IAQ Metrics Development

Iain Walker, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is developing in cooperation with others a metric for IAQ in homes. The overall goal is to produce a scoring tool that provides a quantitative measure of a home’s IAQ—an IAQ Metric. The intent is to create a score for the housing unit that provides credit for features that mitigate IAQ hazards and improve the likelihood of good IAQ. The metric defines IAQ hazards as airborne chemical, physical or biological agents, including irritants and allergens that negatively impact health, odor and well-being, and excess moisture at levels that can promote unwanted microbiological growth.

2.00  To CO2 or Not to CO2

Andrew Persily, Ph.D., NIST
Andrew Persily, National Institute of Standards and Technology, is available to discuss how his paper, "A Review of Measured Indoor Carbon Dioxide Concentrations," relates to IAQ metrics.

3.00  Characterizing IAQ Performance

Kevin Teichman, Ph.D., Environmental Protection Agency
Kevin Teichman, Environmental Protection Agency, is available to discuss how his paper, "Characterizing Indoor Air Quality Performance Using a Graphical Approach," relates to IAQ metrics.

4:00 PM-5:30 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 4B
Capturing Contaminants for Residential Cooking

Kennedy (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Wouter Borsboom, TNO
Contaminants generated by cooking respresent the largest single indoor source in homes.  Range hoods (also known as cooker hoods)  are the common solution intended to mitigate the source.  While hoods in commercial environments are known to perform well, there is little data and no standards on the performance of residential ones, but anecdotal measurements show they perform poorly.   There are current efforts to develop standards to measure the capture efficiency of range hoods.  Such test methods could then be used in standards to set performance levels or to calculate contaminant loads.  This session will review the state of the art of the science, look at some case studies and present the industry perspective, all with experts in the field.

Other Presenters

Lew Harriman: Mason Grant

Iain Walker:  LBL

Daniel Forest:  Venmar/Broan

1  Developing a Test Method for Kitchen Range Hood Capture Efficiency

Iain Walker, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Cooking has a major impact on IAQ and is a significant source of pollutants in a home, including odors, moisture and pollutants with health impacts, such as particles, CO and NOx. This session discusses the development of a new laboratory-based capture efficiency testing standard and look in detail at the experimental data used in the creation of the standard. Key parameters effecting capture efficiency will be examined that have impacts on the design, use and installation of range hoods.

2  Case History: Visual Feedback Reduces Marital Stress and Allows IAQ Improvement

Lew Harriman, Mason Grant
After three decades of the zero exhaust effectiveness of two microwave-range exhaust hoods, the author installed a range hood that has an industry-leading noise rating, and also removes particulate effectively. But that did not mean the chef would use it. The noise was new, and very unwelcome. Aromas from cooking are an essential element in the superb results that this chef achieves. But real-time quantitative visual feedback showed the magnitude of particulate removal from the breathing zone, prompting a change in cooking habits in spite of the still-highly-objectionable 3 sone noise rating of the hood.


3  Exposure on Particulate Matter in Real Cooking Situations, and Can We Reduce It?

Wouter Borsboom, TNO
Presenters have measured the exposure of particulate matter of 10 dwellings during a week, and monitored typical cooker configurations, range hoods and exhaust flows. In a lab situation they built two kitchen configurations, making use of the results of the field study, to represent cooking on gas and induction. Capture efficiency was measured with tracer gas in both kitchens. With this data the presenters validated a CFD model for gas and induction cooking. These models are used to explore new range hood concepts with high efficiency.

4  Capture Efficiency of Range Hoods, an Industrial Perspective

Daniel Forest, Venmar
While the development of a standardized capture efficiency metric for rating the performance of residential kitchen exhaust systems has received slightly less media coverage than this year’s US presidential race, it will arguably have a greater long-term effect on our species’ quality of life. This presentation provides an overview of a ventilation product manufacturer’s experience with conducting capture efficiency tests using two methods, shadowgraph and tracer gas, under various conditions and will highlight lessons learned along the way.

4:00 PM-5:30 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 4C
Healthy Homes: Introducing the Healthy Home Evaluator Credential

Roosevelt (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Larry Zarker, Building Performance Institute, Inc
From identifying asthma triggers to evaluating the risk of lead poisoning and other health hazards, tremendous opportunity exists to incorporate healthy home measures into whole house home performance assessments.

Demand is building for a national Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) credential. Public health programs across the country and private consumers are calling for preventative home health assessments, with costs covered by public benefit funds and health insurers. BPI and the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative—together with a broad team of subject matter experts—introduced the HHE certification to the industry in April 2016 to meet these demands, with the goal of breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families through home performance interventions.

The HHE credential builds upon the BPI Building Analyst, Energy Auditor or Quality Control Inspector certification to assess home-based environmental health and safety hazards by integrating qualitative observations with quantitative diagnostics, to determine and prioritize recommendations that address existing and potential hazards.

This session will present case studies illustrating demand for the Healthy Home Evaluator credential and the opportunities presented to energy auditors, contractors and others to assess and characterize home-based health and safety hazards.

1  Healthy Home Evaluation: Why It Matters

Kevin Kennedy, MPH, CIEC, MS, Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics

Demand is building for a national Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) credential. Public health programs across the country and private consumers are calling for preventative home health assessments, with costs covered by public benefit funds and health insurers. BPI and the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative—together with a broad team of subject matter experts—introduced the HHE certification to the industry in April 2016 to meet these demands, with the goal of breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families through home performance interventions.

2  Maximizing Energy and Non-Energy Benefits Using a Comprehensive Energy and Health Assessment Tool

Ruth Ann Norton, Green & Healthy Homes Initiative
Demand is building for a national Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) credential. Public health programs across the country and private consumers are calling for preventative home health assessments, with costs covered by public benefit funds and health insurers. BPI and the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative—together with a broad team of subject matter experts—introduced the HHE certification to the industry in April 2016 to meet these demands, with the goal of breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families through home performance interventions.

3  Healthy Homes: The Healthy Home Evaluator Credential Discussion

Larry Zarker, Building Performance Institute, Inc
Demand is building for a national Healthy Home Evaluator (HHE) credential. Public health programs across the country and private consumers are calling for preventative home health assessments, with costs covered by public benefit funds and health insurers. BPI and the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative—together with a broad team of subject matter experts—introduced the HHE certification to the industry in April 2016 to meet these demands, with the goal of breaking the link between unhealthy housing and unhealthy families through home performance interventions.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

9:00 AM-10:30 AM
Steering Committee Sessions 5C
Evolution and State of the Art of the Residential Ventilation Standard for North America (ASHRAE 62.2)

Presidential Ballroom (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Paul W. Francisco, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ASHRAE Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality for Low-Rise Residential Buildings, has been the North American industry standard for homes since 2003. Since then, the standard has lived through a significant evolution in home construction. Houses today are much more air-tight than ever before, making the standard increasingly important and relevant. Many more building codes and programs require 62.2 compliance in whole or in part compared to the early days of the standard. With this growth comes increased responsibility for both robust requirements and design flexibility. And standard requirements have evolved with the industry. But many challenges remain. This presentation will highlight how the standard has grown and changed in its 12 years, highlights of the most important current requirements, and a look to the future of IAQ and ventilation standards in North America.

3  Where ASHRAE 62.2 Has Been

Steven J. Emmerich, National Institute of Standards and Technology
This presentation reviews some of the history of ASHRAE 62.2. This includes identifying major transitions as it has evolved and why they occurred.

4  ASHRAE 62.2 and the State of the Science

Brett Singer, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
This session reviews the state of the science surrounding IAQ and ventilation. The focus is on those aspects that have impacted the development of ASHRAE Standard 62.2 and those that may guide future actions.

5  Using ASHRAE 62.2 in New Homes

Elliot Seibert, Steven Winter Associates
This presentation covers the adoption of ASHRAE Standard 62.2 in new construction, including challenges, site considerations, and compliance strategies.

2  Current Topics for ASHRAE 62.2

Paul W. Francisco, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Paul W. Francisco will focus on current issues for the Standard 62.2 committee and represent the existing building market as part of a panel discussion.

1  Where ASHRAE 62.2 Is Going: The Long View

Eric Werling, U.S. Department of Energy
Eric Werling will focus on potential future directions for Standard 62.2 as part of a panel discussion.

10:45 AM-12:00 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 6A
Future of IAQ Sensors and Controls

Kennedy (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Eric Werling, U.S. Department of Energy
Sensor and control technology is advancing rapidly. "Smart" thermostats are selling like hotcakes, low cost sensors are appearing on the market, and new wearable sensor technologies are in development as we speak. It may not be too far in the future when building systems can detect contaminants of concern and react intelligently to automatically reduce IAQ risks to occupants. This panel session will explore this not-too-distant future from three distinct perspectives: future IAQ sensors and and control applications for commercial building, IAQ sensors and and control applications for residential buildings and home, and wearable IAQ sensor technology developments. Following short presentations by one panel expert in each area, the moderator will engage the panelists and audience in a lively discussion about this exciting and challenging frontier.

1.00  Future of IAQ Sensors and Controls

Charlene Bayer, Ph.D., Hygieia Sciences LLC
Charlene Bayer, PhD, Hygieia Sciences LLC, presents on the current state of the art and future trends in wearable IAQ sensors.

2.00  Future of IAQ Sensors and Controls

Gordon Sharp, Aircuity Inc
Gordon Sharp, Aircuity Inc., presents on the current state of the art and future trends in IAQ sensors and control applications for commercial buildings.

3.00  Future of IAQ Sensors and Controls

Brett Singer, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Brett Singer, PhD, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, presents on the state of the art and trends in IAQ sensors and and control applications for residential buildings and homes.

10:45 AM-12:00 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 6B
IEA EBC Annex 68 Project: IAQ Design and Control in Low Energy Residential Buildings

Presidential Ballroom (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Carsten Rode, Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark
The overall objective of the “Annex 68” Project, which belongs to the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Community program, is to develop the basis for optimal design and control strategies for good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in highly energy efficient residential buildings, and to disseminate this information in a practically applicable guide. Such strategies should facilitate the possibility to design and operate residential buildings with minimal energy use, while ensuring impeccable indoor climates. The project will gather existing data and provide new knowledge on pollution sources in buildings and their heat, airflow and moisture interactions. Contemporary models will be assembled to simulate the combined heat, air, moisture and pollution conditions of new NZEB’s or energy refurbished existing buildings. The project will identify ways to optimize the provision of ventilation and air-conditioning.

The project is organized into five subtasks:

• Subtask 1 – “Defining the Metrics”, will set up the metrics for the relevant performance parameters, which combine the aspiration for very high energy performance with good indoor air quality.

• Subtask 2 – “Pollutant loads in residential buildings”, is to gather existing knowledge and provide new data on indoor air pollutants in as far as it has relation to thermal, airflow, and moisture conditions in buildings.

• Subtask 3 – “Modelling - review, gap analysis and categorization”, will identify new couplings and use of modelling tools that can enhance our understanding of the combined thermal and mass flow effects under practical circumstances that can assist designers and operators of buildings.

• Subtask 4 – “Strategies for design and control of buildings”, will build upon the previous subtasks to develop a guidebook on design and control strategies for energy efficient ventilation in residential buildings that will be optimized to provide also very good indoor air quality.

• Subtask 5 – “Field measurements and case studies”, will identify and gather data from relevant case studies and field measurements where the above-mentioned strategies can be examined and optimized.

The first part of the seminar will be to present the project and its specific subtasks and activities therein, as well as to present the plan for deliverables. A subsequent part will be to discuss the content of the Annex project with the participants and gathering comments from the audience. The discussion shall focus on the expression of decisive metrics for IAQ with a view to implementation in policies, standards, and practice.

1  Evaluating the IAQ of Low-Energy Residential Buildings

Marc Abadie, Ph.D., Université de La Rochelle
Subtask 1 aims at defining the metrics to enable a proper consideration of both energy and IAQ benefit in building design and operation. A first step consists in determining a list of target pollutants commonly found in residential buildings by identifying pollutants that are listed as harmful. Existing IAQ metrics will be reviewed to propose the best scientifically-sounded index (or set of indices) for the evaluation of indoor air pollution. The IAQ indices consider different pollutants, exposure limits and aggregations. A last part of the subtask will be dedicated to the inclusion of energy in the proposed evaluation.

2  The Combined Effects of Temperature and Humidity on Initial Emittable Formaldehyde Concentration of Fiberboard

Menghao Qin, Nanjing University
Individual effects of temperature and humidity on formaldehyde emissions from manufactured fiberboards have been studied previously, but their combined effects and possible correlation with initial emittable concentration (C0) of building materials have not been reported. This project investigates combined effects theoretically from a microcosmic perspective. A correlation between C0 and the combined effects of temperature and humidity is derived. The correlation could be helpful to estimate indoor formaldehyde exposure under varied temperature and humidity conditions in actual buildings. Influences of using different token parameters of humidity are also analyzed.

3  Predicting IAQ in Low Energy Houses: The Role of Standard Testing and Benchmarking

Jianshun Zhang, Ph.D., Syracuse University
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. The Subtask will also deal with 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. A whole building perspective is realized by integral consideration of indoor air and building envelope, building users and the building services systems.

4  Design for “High IAQ” in Residences: Current Status and Outlook for the Future

Jakub Kolarik, Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark
The objectives of Subtask 4 are to develop design and control strategies for energy efficient ventilation in residential buildings ensuring 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 take into account recent advances in sensor technology. Subtask 4 will utilize results of previous subtasks (metrics models, pollutant emission databases) together with existing knowledge to devise optimal and practically applicable design and control strategies.

5  Field Measurements and Case Studies

Jelle Laverge, Ghent University
Subtask 5 will identify and gather data from relevant case studies and field measurements where the strategies mentioned in conjunction with Subtask 4 can be examined and optimized. For instance, new ventilation patterns will be investigated in highly energy efficient residential buildings based on improved airtightness, increase insulation, use of materials, and possibly also new residential behavior. Several sites/climates will be proposed, and the field tests will include buildings declared as being energy efficient or recently refurbished to become so. The case studies will be validation experiments for the modelling work in Subtask 2 and Subtask 3.

10:45 AM-12:00 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 6C
Practical Strategies for Achieving IAQ in High Performance Buildings

Roosevelt (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Zuraimi Sultan, National Research Council Canada
An increasing number of buildings are obtaining various certifications such as LEED to WELL to BREAM.  However, what steps need to be taken to actually achieve and demonstrate high indoor air quality, improved human performance, and overall health in a high performing building?  How do we know that the buildings are achieving the optimum indoor environments, particularly spanning through their lifetime?   This session will discuss performance measurements to assess the achievement of IAQ in high performance buildings and materials specifications programs to guide improved IAQ by better materials selection to reduce contaminant sources.  The presentations will span from IAQ and product performance measurements through occupant performance and perceptions.

1.00  Occupants' Satisfaction, Acute Health Symptoms and Performance in Certified Office Buildings

Pawel Wargocki, PhD, Technical University of Denmark

It is often claimed that buildings certified as being sustainable secure high IEQ improving occupants' satisfaction and performance. There are few data that documenting this claim. Two multi-building, multi-country measuring campaigns were carried out to provide evidence on the performance of two certification schemes: Green Mark and DGNB-DK. Week long measurements of parameters describing thermal, atmospheric, acoustic and visual environment were performed, along with administration of a web-based occupant satisfaction survey and rating of their work performance. Three short cognitive games meaured short-term memory, concentration, and text comprehension. The results will be discussed comparing them to previously published data.

2.00  Practical Strategies for Achieving IAQ in Green Buildings and High Performance Buildings

Marwa Zaatari, Ph.D., enVerid Systems
Different ventilation strategies impact both exposures and energy use. Two pollutant exposure control strategies were investigated in several US and Middle Eastern buildings. These tests demonstrated that the air cleaning mode with minimum ventilation coupled with smart controls realized 20-40% energy savings compared to conventional modes, while maintaining or improving the IAq in the space. For the pollutants measured, we calculated emission rates and gave examples of using time-averaged mass balance equations to show compliance with the IAQP. Field measurements in this study demonstrated that efficient air cleaning is a superior option delivering both IAQ and energy savings.

3.00  Optimizing IAQ in Green Buildings

Brendan Owen, USGBC

4.00  Operational IAQ Monitoring and Management Protocols Across Google's Global Portfolio

Lauren Riggs, Google, Inc
Ed Baylosis, Google, Inc
Google set ambitious performance goals across its global facilities portfolio, establishing key criteria and metrics. It has been designed based upon leading science-based research and considers the short and long term exposure of office occupants to low levels of air quality parameters. The IAQ program was developed to include parameters with associated target threshold that was determined based on known human health impacts and achievability on large scale commercial office buildings globally. The program requires more stringent targets than are required by third party green building rating systems or most other commonly used programs and guidelines.

1:45 PM-3:00 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 7C
IAQ Standards around the World: Where We Are and Where We Want to Be

Presidential Ballroom (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Andrew Persily, Ph.D., National Institute of Standards and Technology
Indoor air quality (IAQ) standards and guidelines throughout the world have played a key role in facilitating good indoor air quality in buildings for many decades. But their development and implementation has been challenged in many ways, including insufficient research results addressing many key issues, lack of awareness regarding IAQ standards on the part of practitioners, and competing demands (including energy efficiency) facing building designers, owners and operators. In order to support good IAQ into the future, standards and guidelines will need to evolve to address these issues, to incorporate the latest research results, and to reflect practitioners’ experience from the application of standards in the field. This session will present information on the current status of IAQ standards and guidelines throughout the world, with discussion of how these documents might be changed in the future, particularly given the current focus on net, or near, zero energy and high performance buildings.

1.00  ASHRAE Ventilation and IAQ Standards: A Short History

Andrew Persily, Ph.D., National Institute of Standards and Technology
Building ventilation has long been recognized for its role in occupant health, comfort and productivity, with recommendations on ventilation rates first published in the 19th century. These recommendations were transformed into more rigorous standards in the 20th century, with the first version of ASHRAE Standard 62 published in 1973. Since that time, Standard 62 has dealt with an increasingly challenging range of issues as research and practice have progressed. This presentation reviews issues in the development of ASHRAE ventilation and IAQ standards, including: the scientific bases for ventilation requirements, airborne contaminant limits, indoor carbon dioxide concentrations, and performance-based design.

2.00  CEN and ISO Ventilation and IAQ Standards

Bjarne W. Olesen, Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark
ISO JWG TC163-205 and CEN TC156 has in parallel developed similar standards for Indoor Environmental Quality (DIS-17772, prEN16798-1). An important part of these standards are recommended criteria for IAQ and ventilation rates to be used by design and input to energy performance calculations for buildings. The standards deal with both residential and non-residential buildings. The recommendations for acceptable indoor air quality and ventilation are specified as classes. This allows for national differences in the requirements and also for designing buildings for different quality levels, and will initiate a better dialogue between the client (builder, owner) and the designer.

3.00  Review of Asian IAQ Standards

Chandra Sekhar, Ph.D., National University of Singapore
Research on ventilation and IAQ is ongoing worldwide, and a better understanding of the impacts on human comfort, health, and productivity is continuously evolving. There have been considerable developments in ventilation and IAQ standards in Asia, primarily in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and South Korea. An important consideration for Asia is that hot and humid climates have an inherent energy penalty for conditioning outdoor air. This talk reviews current developments in IAQ Standards in Asia and highlights some key aspects that are unique to this part of the world.

4.00  AIVC Activities in Relation to Standards, Regulations and Implementation in Practice

Peter Wouters, Ph.D., Belgian Building Research Institute
The large majority of countries have standards, guidelines and/or regulations related to ventilation and airtightness in buildings. In most cases, they are autonomous documents, but in some cases they are part of minimum indoor climate requirements imposed as part of energy performance requirements. What is the situation on the ground? What procedures exist in case of non-compliance? To what extent are these specifications driving the industry? Do they stimulate innovation? Are they a barrier for innovation? These topics will be covered in the presentation.

5.00  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency IAQ Guidance

Laura Kolb, US Environmental Protection Agency
IAQ guidance from the US Environmental Protection Agency is available for homes, schools, and commercial buildings. The guidance is and has always been voluntary. EPA’s aim is to ensure that IAQ is an important consideration in building design, operation, construction, and maintenance. EPA recently completed a new suite of guidance materials which cover how to weatherize or remodel a building to save energy while maintaining IAQ. The latest addition to EPA’s guidance is entitled Energy Savings Plus Health: Indoor Air Quality Guidelines for Multifamily Building Upgrades. As building guidance, codes, and standards evolve, IAQ and health considerations must be included.

6.00  IAQ Standards of the Future: Recent Research on the Connections Between Ventilation and Health

Pawel Wargocki, PhD, Technical University of Denmark

Current ventilation standards define required outdoor air rates based on sensory discomfort, while assuming that these rates will also protect against health potential risks. It is relevant to ask whether these standards need revision and/or extension, and whether health instead of sensory discomfort should be used to define ventilation requirements. However, ventilation is only a measure to control exposures, and it is these exposures (not ventilation) that are related to health. An example of a framework for establishing health-based ventilation standards will be presented. Moreover, the strengths and weaknesses of research connecting ventilation with health will be discussed.

7.00  Discussion

Andrew Persily, Ph.D., NIST
Discussion on IAQ standards around the world.

3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 8C
Indoor Air Quality Association and ASHRAE:  New Approaches to Government Affairs Advocacy

Roosevelt (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chair: Cole Stanton, Indoor Air Quality Association
Thesis: A consensus-driven, grassroots and member directed program of legislative advocacy can provide outcomes favorable to members of an association, achieve effective penetration of rulemaking processes, function economically on volunteer effort and become widely perceived as a valuable benefit of association membership.

Content: During the past two plus years, the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) revitalized its Government Affairs Committee – a service to its members that had been intentionally mothballed for several preceding years. As recently as a decade ago, Government Affairs had been an actively supported and promoted service of the IAQA, and the notification to members of policy developments, and even occasional advocacy on behalf of members was widely considered a fundamental member benefit. However, for a variety of reasons, the IAQA had altered course and shifted away from active involvement in legislative affairs or advocacy.

The President of IAQA directed a rejuvenation of Government Affairs as an active service to the organization’s membership. At the outset, the effort would be comprised of volunteers from membership, without an agenda, and without a budget. The newly reconstituted IAQA Government Affairs Committee would have substantial freedom to innovate in serving IAQA’s members.

It is the intent of this paper/presentation to explore the ASHRAE/IAQA legislative experiences, as viewed by the prism of the IAQA’s most prominent early initiatives:

  • Sunset of mold assessment and remediation licensing in Texas
  • Administrative reform of mold assessment and remediation licensing in Florida
  • Advent of mold assessment and remediation licensure in New York

In addition, the authors intend to draw upon nuances of legislative affairs gleaned from the IAQA Committee’s efforts over the past two plus years in other locales, including, but not limited to, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, California and Tennessee.

At this stage, the IAQA Government Affairs Committee is working actively to codify recent experiences, positive and negative, into operational guidelines to direct the group moving forward as its activities become more intense and widespread.

Conclusion: the joint recent experience and successes of the ASHRAE and IAQA collaboration in Government Affairs has resulted in thought provoking insights as to how both organizations can expand on what works for an organization in legislative advocacy – and avoiding those things that do not work.

1  Indoor Air Quality Association and ASHRAE: New Approaches to Government Affairs Advocacy

Jim Scarborough, ASHRAE
Cole Stanton, Indoor Air Quality Association
A consensus-driven, grassroots member program of legislative advocacy.

Content: The IAQA recently revitalized its Government Affairs Committee. The reconstituted IAQA Government Affairs Committee has substantial freedom to innovate in serving IAQA’s members. Three IAQA early initiatives will be explored: 1. Sunset of mold assessment and remediation licensing in Texas, 2. Administrative reform of mold assessment and remediation licensing in Florida, 3. Advent of mold assessment and remediation licensure in New York. The collaboration of ASHRAE and IAQA in Government Affairs has provided insights as to how both organizations can expand on what works in legislative advocacy and what does not.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

11:00 AM-12:30 PM
Steering Committee Sessions 10B
Continuous Assessment of IEQ using an Innovative Pre-/Post-Occupancy Evaluation Protocol for High Performance Buildings

Roosevelt (Crowne Plaza Old Town Alexandria)
Chairs: Ihab Elzeyadi, Ph.D., University of Oregon and Todd DiNoia, Ph.D., Saint-Gobain Northboro Research and Development Center
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) affects occupant comfort, health, and productivity, and has a critical impact on organizational performance. Previous studies of Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POE) and IEQ assessments have traditionally gathered point-in-time data or monitored a post-occupancy satisfaction of sampled settings recording only a “snap-shot” of how the building performed or the occupants’ perceived at the time of survey. This led to fragmented findings and isolated cases of IEQ assessments. This session will discuss a comprehensive IEQ Toolbox™ protocol that has been designed to gather systematic evaluation and diagnostics data of building performance and occupants’ multi-comfort metrics on an on-going basis. The protocol assess both the physical environment as well as occupants’ satisfaction and perception simultaneously. It squarely addressee IEQ multiple sub-systems of thermal, visual, acoustical indoor air, and spatial comfort.

The presentations will provide an overview of findings from a multi-year Pre-occupancy and Post-occupancy Evaluations of a LEED™ Platinum office campus. For this study we employed a multi-method longitudinal research design for assessing IEQ parameters, building performance, and occupants’ multi-comfort and satisfaction – IEQ Toolbox™-- of eight buildings for a corporate office park campus (five in the pre-occupancy stage and 3 in the post-occupancy stage). A comparative analysis of the design strategies and spatial performance of the five buildings (pre-relocation) and three newly remodeled buildings (post re-location) will be discussed. The presentation will focus on 10 different sampled spaces --of different spatial configurations and IEQ strategies--designed for and assessed over four seasonal climatic variations in the pre-occupancy and two seasonal variations in the post occupancy assessment. The session will present the patterns and LEED credits that contribute to a better IEQ as perceived by the occupants and measured through validated metrics. Methodological innovations for conducting comprehensive longitudinal POE studies as exemplified in the IEQ Toolbox™ will be presented. In addition, implications on the future design of IEQ and ambience of green buildings will be discussed. The hope is to provide a decision support process and lessons for building practitioners, occupants, and owners that would help them design and evaluate green buildings IEQ in a comprehensive way.

Presenters 

  1. Todd DiNoia Todd DiNoia - Director, CertainTeed R&D Platforms
  2. Ihab Elzeyadi, Ph.D., FEIA, LEED AP, Associate Professor, University of Oregon, Director, High Performance Environments Lab (Presenter)
  3. Stanley D. Gatland II - Manager, Building Sciences - CertainTeed Corporation

1.00  Collaborative IEQ Assessments for an Office Park Campus

Stanley Gatland II, Saint Gobain Corp.
This presentation describes the general building renovation design with an emphasis on acoustic comfort and indoor air quality for the open-plan office space and collaborative meeting areas. Acoustic comfort metrics: reverberation time, spatial distraction distance and sound transmission loss will be compared to illustrate the impact of surface absorption, white noise and interior partition design. The method and results for evaluation of indoor air quality will be discussed. Thermal comfort measurements in accordance with ASHRAE Standard 55 will presented for individual workstations. The thermal comfort results will be compared with the unique IEQ Toolbox™ method for single day measurements.

2.00  Closing the Building Design-Operation Loop: Innovative Spatial IEQ Assessment Methods and Applications

Ihab Elzeyadi, Ph.D., University of Oregon
The speaker illustrates the IEQ model developed and the research design for a pre-/post occupancy protocol of evaluation (PPOPE) for LEED buildings. The presentation discusses how this protocol is employed for continuous IEQ assessment. The presentation reviews the unique IEQ Toolbox™ instrumentations and procedure with special emphasis on thermal and visual comfort metrics. The presenter compares and contrasts building assessment metrics and standards with spatial visualization of the building performance from the occupants’ perspective. Implication and future studies will be discussed as well as further applications of the methods and protocols to future building types.

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