Lecture

Ventilation: Indoor Air Quality

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

CIVIL-212: Fundamentals of indoor climate

The indoor climate impacts building performance and human well-being. This course covers fundamental knowledge of indoor air quality and thermal environment, with their assessment methods. It also outlines strategies for creating comfortable, healthy, and ...

Description

This lecture covers the importance of ventilation in maintaining indoor air quality, discussing topics such as air exchange rates, prescriptive procedures for ventilation rates, minimum ventilation rates as per standards, analytical methods for calculating ventilation rates, and the impact of ventilation on indoor air pollution levels. The instructor explains how to determine the required ventilation rates based on pollutant concentrations and human bioeffluents. The lecture also addresses the challenges in achieving optimal ventilation rates in buildings, the effectiveness of ventilation systems, and the key factors in solving indoor air quality problems.

Instructor

Dusan Licina

Dusan Licina is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Indoor Environmental Quality at the School for Architecture, Civil, and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL. He leads the Human-Oriented Built Environment Lab (HOBEL) in Fribourg since 1 June 2018. Dusan’s research and teaching are driven by the need to advance knowledge of the intersections between people and the built environment in order to ensure high indoor environmental quality for building occupants with minimum energy input. His research group specializes in air quality engineering, focusing on understanding of concentrations, dynamics and fates of air pollutants within buildings, and development and application of methods to quantitatively describe relationships between air pollution sources and consequent human exposures. His research interests also encompass optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality and thermal comfort in an energy-efficient manner. Throughout his career, Dusan specialized in air quality engineering, focusing on sources and transport of air pollutants in buildings, human exposure assessment, and optimization of building ventilation systems with an aim to improve air quality. Dusan completed my joint Doctorate degree at the National University of Singapore and Technical University of Denmark. He was formerly master and bachelor student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Prior to joining EPFL, Dusan worked for 3.5 years in the USA, first he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California Berkeley, and then he served as director on the standard development team at International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) in New York. Dusan is the recipient of several honors and awards, including Ralph G. Nevin’s award by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) given in recognition of significant accomplishment in the study of human response to the environment. He is editorial board member of the highly acclaimed Indoor Air journal. He is passionate about raising awareness about the air quality issues worldwide and developing buildings that are not only energy efficient, but that also contribute to “Michelin Star” indoor air quality.

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Ventilation (architecture)

Ventilation is the intentional introduction of outdoor air into a space. Ventilation is mainly used to control indoor air quality by diluting and displacing indoor pollutants; it can also be used to control indoor temperature, humidity, and air motion to benefit thermal comfort, satisfaction with other aspects of the indoor environment, or other objectives. The intentional introduction of outdoor air is usually categorized as either mechanical ventilation, natural ventilation, or mixed-mode ventilation (hybrid ventilation).

Passive ventilation

Passive ventilation is the process of supplying air to and removing air from an indoor space without using mechanical systems. It refers to the flow of external air to an indoor space as a result of pressure differences arising from natural forces. There are two types of natural ventilation occurring in buildings: wind driven ventilation and buoyancy-driven ventilation. Wind driven ventilation arises from the different pressures created by wind around a building or structure, and openings being formed on the perimeter which then permit flow through the building.

Indoor air quality

Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduced productivity, and impaired learning in schools. Common pollutants of indoor air include: secondhand tobacco smoke, air pollutants from indoor combustion, radon, molds and other allergens, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, legionella and other bacteria, asbestos fibers, carbon dioxide, ozone and particulates.

Air pollution

Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. It is also the contamination of indoor or outdoor surrounding either by chemical activities, physical or biological agents that alters the natural features of the atmosphere. There are many different types of air pollutants, such as gases (including ammonia, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane and chlorofluorocarbons), particulates (both organic and inorganic), and biological molecules.

Heat recovery ventilation

Heat recovery ventilation (HRV), also known as mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR), is an energy recovery ventilation system that operates between two air sources at different temperatures. It's a method that is used to reduce the heating and cooling demands of buildings. By recovering the residual heat in the exhaust gas, the fresh air introduced into the air conditioning system is preheated (or pre-cooled), and the fresh air's enthalpy is reduced before it enters the room, or the air cooler of the air conditioning unit performs heat and moisture treatment.

Related lectures (48)

Thermal Comfort - Air Quality - Acoustic Comfort

Explores thermal, air, and acoustic comfort in sustainable construction, covering factors influencing well-being and legal aspects.

IAQ Controls

Delves into IAQ controls, covering ventilation strategies, filtration, and air cleaning, emphasizing the impact of indoor climate on human health and productivity.

IAQ and Ventilation: Mass-Balance Principle

Explains the mass-balance principle for predicting indoor pollutant concentrations and emphasizes ventilation importance.

IAQ and Ventilation: Mass-Balance Principle & Air-Exchange Rate

Explores air exchange rates in homes and their impact on indoor air quality.

Efficient Presentation of Climate Context