IAQ 2016 Defining Indoor Air Quality: Policy, Standards and Best Practices Co-Organized by ASHRAE and AIVC

By all estimates, the enormous problems and massive financial impact associated with leaky ventilation and ductwork have been tolerated for one primary reason - there has been no viable solution to the problem. In 2008, innovative new technologies were used to complete the first comprehensive ventilation retrofit for improving both energy and indoor air quality performance. Since the completion of this retrofit project, thousands of similar multifamily apartments with central ventilation have been retrofitted for higher energy performance and improved indoor air quality.

We investigated the indoor air quality of a low-energy, high-performance deployable structure for use by the U.S. Army on contingency bases overseas.  Results of measurements of volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and air exchange rate under varying conditions are reported and compared to health-based criteria.  In addition, source emission rates of target pollutants are reported, as well as a minimum ventilation rate to maintain acceptable air quality.  Finally, we propose a pre-occupancy protocol for minimizing later VOC exposure.

While most discussions of high performance buildings include site impacts, water use, energy, materials and indoor environmental quality, energy often receives more attention than these other attributes. Given that buildings exist primarily for the occupants, indoor air quality (IAQ) within these buildings obviously merits serious consideration. ASHRAE/IES/USGBC Standard 189.1, Design of High-Performance Green Buildings, is the only consensus standard for high performance buildings, but questions exist as to whether or not it is consistent with high performance IAQ. This paper discusses high performance IAQ and how Standard 189.1 as well as other programs might move to higher performance IAQ.

In this study, the low-cost particle sensors were exposed to the indoor air and the results were compared with the advanced particulate counting technology, an optical particle counter (OPC), a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). Since the sensors work with light scattering, it was found that their outputs were affected with the ambient lights levels causing uncertainties in the measured results. Our research also indicates that the sensors are sensitive to 1μm size particles or greater, and their outputs are very sensitive to air circulation which make it difficult to compare with different technologies.