Commercial building retrofitting: Assessment of improvements in energy performance and indoor air quality

In the newly decorated office premises, the architectural decoration material will release much polluted gas, thus the IAQ is highly concerned. Natural ventilation through open windows can influence the IAQ. To study the effects of opening windows on the indoor air quality of newly decorated office premises, we choose several newly decorated offices in a commercial building in Changsha, a city in hot summer and cold winter region of China, as the study object. The 4 contrastive research schemes in the winter are adopted to acquire the results. Field-testing and air sampling methods were taken respectively to the 4 schemes to measure the concentrations of the main pollution composition such as formaldehyde, ammonia, benzene and TVOC in the offices. Meanwhile, relevant questionnaire surveys towards the four schemes were taken to the staff in the offices. We have synthesized and analyzed the IAQ condition of the 4 research schemes from the results of the tests and surveys. The result of the study shows that: the IAQ is the worst and cannot come up to the national standard when closing windows all day long in the newly decorated offices. Also some staff have a series of adverse reactions working in the work environment for a long time. All the other three schemes can improve the IAQ differently, and the scheme that opening windows all day long can improve the IAQ the best. Meanwhile, people can feel the change of IAQ effected by the 3 ventilation schemes if he/she is working for a long time in the offices.

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Energy Performance, Indoor Air Quality and Comfort in New Nearly Zero Energy Day-care Centres in Northern Climatic Conditions

Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering ◽

10.5755/j01.sace.24.1.23228 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 7-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kalle Kuusk ◽

Ahmed Kaiser ◽

Nicola Lolli ◽

Jan Johansson ◽

Tero Hasu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Day Care ◽

Energy Use ◽

Thermal Environment ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Indoor Climate ◽

Zero Energy ◽

Day Care Centres

The European energy policy pushes the member states to transform building stock into nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (nZEB). This paper is focused on data collected from existing nZEB day-care centres,in order to be able to assess possible differences between predicted and actual energy and indoorenvironmental performance. Building structures, service systems and the indoor climate and energyperformance of five day-care centres were investigated in Estonia, Finland and Norway.Indoor climate condition measurements showed that in general, the thermal environment and indoor airquality corresponded to the highest indoor climate categories I and II (EN 15251). Building heating andventilation systems in studied buildings are working without major problems. Good indoor climate conditions were also reflected in the occupant satisfaction questionnaires. For most of the studied buildings, over 80%of the people marked all indoor environment condition parameters (thermal comfort, indoor air quality,acoustics, odour and illuminance) acceptable. The thermal environment in the cooling season was reportedproblematic because it was lower than the minimum temperature for indoor climate category II.Energy consumption analysis showed that measured real energy use was higher, or even significantlyhigher, than the energy use calculated during the design phase. Potential causes of the higher actualenergy consumption are caused by differences of measured and designed solutions, methodology of theenergy calculations, and the differences in user behaviour.Lessons learnt from previously constructed day-care centres can be utilised in the planning and designof new nZEBs.

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Indoor environmental input parameters for design and assessment of energy performance of buildings addressing indoor air quality, thermal environment, lighting and acoustics

10.3403/30133865u ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Thermal Environment ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Environmental Input ◽

Energy Performance Of Buildings ◽

Input Parameters

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Improving Energy Performance and Indoor Air Quality in Laboratory Buildings Using an Innovative Air Handling Unit System

Solar Energy ◽

10.1115/isec2003-44026 ◽

2003 ◽

Author(s):

Y. Cui ◽

M. Liu

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air Quality ◽

Thermal Energy ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Building Energy ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Unit System ◽

Air Handling Unit ◽

Air Intake

The Laboratory Air Handling Unit (LAHU) system is developed to improve building energy performance and indoor air quality (IAQ) in laboratory buildings. The LAHU system sends more (up to 100%) outside air to the office section first and re-circulates the office section air to the laboratory section. The theoretical model analysis shows that the LAHU system improves office section indoor air quality, uses less outside air during hot and cold weathers, and consumes significantly less thermal energy. The optimal control of outside air intake to office section maximizes IAQ improvement and thermal energy savings.

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Assessing the Energy and Indoor Air Quality Performance for a Three-Story Building Using an Integrated Model, Part One: The Need for Integration

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12244775 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (24) ◽

pp. 4775 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Seyedmohammadreza Heibati ◽

Wahid Maref ◽

Hamed H. Saber

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Simulation Model ◽

Indoor Air Quality ◽

Indoor Air ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Performance Model ◽

Control Variables ◽

Quality Performance ◽

Integrated Simulation

In building applications, there is a dynamic interaction/coupling between the energy performance and the indoor air quality (IAQ) performance. Previously, the performance of energy consumption (EC) and IAQ has been evaluated independently. In this study, an energy performance model (EnergyPlus) and IAQ performance model (CONTAM: contaminant transport analysis) were simultaneously coupled as a new integrated simulation model in which the control variables were exchanged between the two models. Two scenarios were provided in this study for a three-story house. The first scenario addressed the effect of airtightness only. The second scenario, however, addressed the airtightness with an exhaust fan with an upgraded filter. In order to better analyze the accuracy of the simulations, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated independently using the EnergyPlus model and CONTAM model. Thereafter, the performance of the energy and IAQ were simulated using the present integrated simulation model. All simulations were conducted for the climatic conditions of Montreal and Miami. The results of the integrated simulation model showed that the exchange of control variables between both EnergyPlus and CONTAM produced accurate results for the performance of both energy and IAQ. Finally, the necessity of using the present integrated simulation model is discussed.

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