Scribd
Upload
44 views2 pages

Demand-Controlled Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air pollution is primarily caused by humans through respiration and activities. Carbon dioxide levels provide a useful indicator of indoor air quality, as fresh air contains 370-400 ppm of CO2 while human exhalation contains around 3% CO2. Most countries consider indoor air quality acceptable below 800-1000 ppm of CO2. A single person in a 10 square meter room without ventilation would reach limiting CO2 levels within half an hour. A classroom of 20-25 students would surpass 1000 ppm within 10 minutes without active ventilation. Demand controlled ventilation uses CO2 sensors in each room to activate ventilation only when CO2 levels rise above set limits, improving air quality where people are present while reducing overall ventilation system

Uploaded by

Misty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
44 views2 pages

Demand-Controlled Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air pollution is primarily caused by humans through respiration and activities. Carbon dioxide levels provide a useful indicator of indoor air quality, as fresh air contains 370-400 ppm of CO2 while human exhalation contains around 3% CO2. Most countries consider indoor air quality acceptable below 800-1000 ppm of CO2. A single person in a 10 square meter room without ventilation would reach limiting CO2 levels within half an hour. A classroom of 20-25 students would surpass 1000 ppm within 10 minutes without active ventilation. Demand controlled ventilation uses CO2 sensors in each room to activate ventilation only when CO2 levels rise above set limits, improving air quality where people are present while reducing overall ventilation system

Uploaded by

Misty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Demand Control of Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air pollution is primarily due to the presence of humans, and includes water vapour, CO 2 and other gases due to respiration and bodily odours, as well
as dust brought in by clothing and footwear or becomes whirled up from floors, carpets etc. In addition, large amounts of vapours and particles from materials
may be released - particularly in so-called modern buildings. Work-related processes in industry and various other activity may contribute less common
pollutants. However, such non-human contributions to indoor climate may to a large extent be reduced by applying existing knowledge and protective
measures - and a willingness to make a priority of people's health and environment, e.g., by choosing appropriate building materials. Consequently, under
most circumstances the load of people in each separate room will be the decisive factor for the quality of local indoor climate suffered by any individual.

Years of research and experience have sufficed to show that the concentration of CO 2 is a useful and relevant indicator of total indoor air quality, being
directly indicative of people's presence through CO2 from respiration. Fresh air contains 370 - 400 ppm (part-per-million) of CO 2, while each exhalation of air
from humans carries ca 3 % of CO2. In several countries, health authorities have set standards for indoor air of 800 - 1,000 ppm of CO 2, as upper limits that
should not be exceeded.

Suppose 1 l of air is exhaled ten times a minute by a moderately active person, resulting in 0.3 l of pure CO 2 per minute. In a 10 m2 (100 sq feet) room without
ventilation, occupied by a single individual, the air would be close to the limiting concentration of CO 2 after half an hour. (This estimate may be conservative).
Worse: In a typical classroom with 20 - 25 students, the air would reach 1,000 ppm of CO 2 after less than 10 minutes unless actively ventilated. Indoor air
quality in occupied rooms thus becomes reduced very rapidly, much earlier than our senses are normally able to tell us.

In demand controlled ventilation (DCV) each room is served by a CO 2 gas sensor, which allows ventilation to be activated before air quality in any room is
reduced beyond administratively set limits. Ventilation may then be reduced or turned off wherever air quality standards are satisfied. In this manner, the
capacity of the ventilation system essentially becomes moved around the building on local demands, depending on which rooms are occupied at any time. A
working example of DCV is shown in Figure 1 below. Such functions may easily be automated by communicating sensor signals to a central command unit
with computer-based decision routines. Quality indoor air may thus be secured wherever people are present.
(Figure 1)

The concept of DCV, and most technologies needed to make it a technical


reality, have been around for quite a while, as has the motivation for
improved indoor climate: Research has shown that close on half of short time
absence from work in the US may be related to factors in the indoor air. Yet
DCV has not caught on primarily due to the lack of suitable CO 2 sensors.
CO2 is comparatively easy to measure with various methods, chiefly
chemical, electrochemical and infrared. The limiting problem has been to do
it reliably, reproducibly and cost-effectively, so that CO 2 sensor calibrations
are not lost after a few months' time. That problem has now been solved by
recent developments in infrared CO2 gas sampling. Those new, digital IR
CO2 gas sensors remove any existing obstacles for the introduction of DCV on a large scale, in old and new buildings alike. As will be seen below, DCV may
also be economically quite rewarding in saving large amounts of energy in buildings.

You might also like