Assessing the Energy, Indoor Air Quality, and Moisture Performance for a Three-Story Building Using an Integrated Model, Part Two: Integrating the Indoor Air Quality, Moisture, and Thermal Comfort

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated model that coupled CONTAM and WUFI was developed to assess the indoor air quality (IAQ), moisture, and thermal comfort performance. The coupling method of CONTAM and WUFI is described based on the exchange of airflow rate control variables as infiltration, natural and mechanical ventilation parameters between heat and moisture flow balance equations in WUFI and contaminant flow balances equations in CONTAM. To evaluate the predictions of the integrated model compared to single models of CONTAM and WUFI, four scenarios were used. These scenarios are airtight-fan off, airtight-fan on, leaky-fan off, and leaky-fan on, and were defined for a three-story house subjected to three different climate conditions of Montreal, Vancouver, and Miami. The measures of the simulated indoor CO2, PM2.5, and VOCs obtained by CONTAM; the simulated indoor relative humidity (RH), predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD), and predicted mean vote (PMV) obtained by WUFI; and those obtained by the integrated model are compared separately for all scenarios in Montreal, Vancouver, and Miami. Finally, the optimal scenarios are selected. The simulated results of the optimal scenarios with the integrated model method (−28.88% to 46.39%) are different from those obtained with the single models. This is due to the inability of the single models to correct the airflow variables.

Assessing the Energy, Indoor Air Quality, and Moisture Performance for a Three-Story Building Using an Integrated Model, Part Three: Development of Integrated Model and Applications

“…In the first phase, the coupling of EnergyPlus with CONTAM is provided in our previous publication [34]. In the second phase, the possibility of combining WUFI with the CONTAM model has been evaluated [18]. In the third phase, an integrated model of energy, indoor air quality and moisture have been developed based on a combination of all three models of EnergyPlus, CONTAM, and WUFI.…”

“…m for volumetric airflow rate (m 3 /h), V net for building net volume (m 3 ), NL for normalized leakage, ELA for effective leakage area, A f for floor area (m 2 ) and H for building height (m) are considered (for more details regarding airflow element models and effective leakage area calculation conditions values in ContamW, see [18]).…”

“…m air−inward total ) used in the contaminant balance equation. In Equation (18), the total airflow of ith zone ( . m (air−total) i ) depends on the density variable of the room air of ith zone (ρ i ).…”

“…In WUFI, the weather data files have been selected from the weather database. Finally, all input data for EnegyPlus, CONTAM, and WUFI models are used as input data for the integrated model for comparison and analyzing the simulated results (for more details see [18]).…”

“…Many recent studies have been performed to exploit the combination of EnergyPlus and CONTAM models that the results of this coupling are more accurately compared to single models [4]. WUFI models with CONTAM have been used to increase the accuracy of assessing performances of indoor air quality and moisture [18]. To the best of our knowledge, in the previous studies, several researchers have studied a maximum of two performances combination.…”