Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a major issue to be considered when trying to achieve energy efficiency in HVAC systems. An HVAC system exists to provide comfortable and healthy working conditions, and this requirement should not be compromised in the search for more efficient systems. While the project assumes that complaints in the spaces conditioned will normally lead to improvements in the IAQ, it is prudent to check this is actually the case, and whether the data monitored in this project can also be used to automatically indicate potential problems with IAQ. For the purposes of this work an IAQ methodology was developed.
Building selection is the most critical step of the methodology as it takes into account its technical specifications, environmental characteristics and operating conditions. It also depends on the building’s availability (at least 6-9 months) and the installed HVAC system. Finally it is of great importance to consider reporting of poor IAQ.
Selected buildings are visited by experienced personnel having the responsibility to identify the basic operating conditions of the dwelling, occupancy, local pollution sources and collect information to be used for the selection of monitoring locations. At the same time of the visit a questionnaire issued to the building users will provide more information which will assist on instrumentation sitting. All data collected as part of the questionnaire are treated as confidential data.
The instrumentation designed and developed for this project is a complex wireless portable sensor which combines measurements of temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The measurement campaign lasts 6-9 months so that a wide variety of meteorological, environmental and operating conditions are included and any major changes that take place during the course of the campaign.
The IAQ data in conjunction to the HVAC data will be used to link buildings HVAC performance and IAQ.
Author: Dr. Margarita-Niki Assimakopoulos (University of Athens)