Low-Carbon Housings and Indoor Air Quality

Yu, Chuck Wah; Kim, Jeong Tai

doi:10.1177/1420326x11431907

Cited by 49 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Apart from the link between overheating and ventilation, ventilation is important of itself. With increased airtightness there is a risk of poor indoor air quality unless occupants respond appropriately (Yu and Kim, 2012). Again few data on indoor air quality in energy-efficient buildings exist (Derbez et al, 2014b) and this risk is still poorly understood (Wells et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overheating in vulnerable and non-vulnerable households

Vellei

2016

Building Research & Information

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As the 2003 European heat wave demonstrated, overheating in homes can cause wide scale fatalities. With temperatures and heat wave frequency predicted to increase due to climate change, such events can be expected to become more common. Thus, investigating the risk of overheating in buildings is key to understanding the scale of the problem and in designing solutions. Most work on this topic has been theoretical and based on lightweight dwellings that might be expected to overheat. By contrast, in this study temperature and air quality data were collected over two years in vulnerable and non-vulnerable UK homes where overheating would not be expected to be common. Overheating was found to be occurring, and disproportionally so in households with vulnerable occupants. Since the summers in question were not extreme and contained no prolonged heat waves this is a significant and worrying finding. The vulnerable homes were also found to have worse air quality and this suggests that some of the problem might be solved by enhancing indoor ventilation. Finally, the collected thermal comfort survey data were validated against the European adaptive model. Results suggest that the model underestimates discomfort in warm conditions, having implications for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable homes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overheating in vulnerable and non-vulnerable households

Vellei

2016

Building Research & Information

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“…A first review on IAQ in energy efficient buildings concluded that further researches are needed [3]. More recently, a review of the background information regarding low-carbon housing in the United Kingdom [4] cited…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 3-year follow-up of indoor air quality and comfort in two energy-efficient houses

Derbez

Berthineau

Cochet

et al. 2014

Building and Environment

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International audienceIn order to improve the knowledge of the indoor environment quality of energy-efficient buildings, a 3-year follow-up study was carried out in two wooden-framed low-energy single-family houses in France. Several indoor air indicators and indoor environmental parameters were measured during seven weeks in total from the pre-occupancy stage up to three years of occupancy. Questionnaires were used for each investigation to record the family activities and perceived comfort of occupants. The ventilation systems presented some shortcomings, including the failure to reach the designed exhaust air flow rate and induced occupant dissatisfaction. Regarding the measured pollutants, both houses didn't present any specific indoor air pollution. The variability of indoor air quality over time was explained by the high emissions from the new building materials, products, and paints during the first months after completion and then more episodically by human activities during occupancy. Regarding the thermal comfort and even if occupants were globally satisfied, overheating and under-heating were observed. According to our results and in order to guarantee the health and the well-being of occupants in these buildings, it would be useful to integrate the solar shadings at the very first stage of the building design, to design more quiet, user-friendly and robust ventilation systems and to implement mandatory inspection as well as frequent maintenance by professionals and finally to promote the labelling of low-emitting construction and decoration products, furniture and consumer products

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“…Technologies such as metal oxide (MOx) semiconductor sensors (Herberger et al, 2010;Kadosaki et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2012), light scattering (Tong et al, 2015) and tin oxide sensors (Watson, 1984;Postolache et al, 2009), open platforms (Ferdoush and Li, 2014;Ali et al, 2016), and wireless networks (Yu et al, 2013) have been adapted into low-cost monitors, and even allow remote monitoring (Kahkonen et al, 1997). New low-cost (< GBP 200) monitoring technologies may also help building occupants understand the quality of air indoors.…”

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confidence: 99%

Field evaluation of a low-cost indoor air quality monitor to quantify exposure to pollutants in residential environments

Moreno-Rangel

Sharpe

Musau

et al. 2018

J. Sens. Sens. Syst.

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Abstract. Measurements of temporal and spatial changes to indoor contaminant concentrations are vital to understanding pollution characteristics. Whilst scientific instruments provide high temporal resolution of indoor pollutants, their cost and complexity make them unfeasible for large-scale projects. Low-cost monitors offer an opportunity to collect high-density temporal and spatial data in a broader range of households. This paper presents a user study to assess the precision, accuracy, and usability of a low-cost indoor air quality monitor in a residential environment to collect data about the indoor pollution. Temperature, relative humidity, total volatile organic compounds (tVOC), carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) data were measured with five low-cost (“Foobot”) monitors and were compared with data from other monitors reported to be scientifically validated. The study found a significant agreement between the instruments with regard to temperature, relative humidity, total volatile organic compounds, and fine particulate matter data. Foobot CO2 equivalent was found to provide misleading CO2 levels as indicators of ventilation. Calibration equations were derived for tVOC, CO2, and PM2.5 to improve sensors' accuracy. The data were analysed based on the percentage of time pollutant levels that exceeded WHO thresholds. The performance of low-cost monitors to measure total volatile organic compounds and particulate matter 2.5 µm has not been properly addressed. The findings suggest that Foobot is sufficiently accurate for identifying high pollutant exposures with potential health risks and for providing data at high granularity and good potential for user or scientific applications due to remote data retrieval. It may also be well suited to remote and larger-scale studies in quantifying exposure to pollutants.

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Low-Carbon Housings and Indoor Air Quality

Cited by 49 publications

References 80 publications

Overheating in vulnerable and non-vulnerable households

Overheating in vulnerable and non-vulnerable households

A 3-year follow-up of indoor air quality and comfort in two energy-efficient houses

Field evaluation of a low-cost indoor air quality monitor to quantify exposure to pollutants in residential environments

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