Indoor Air Quality in Renovated Dutch Homes

Abstract

The indoor air quality in several types of dwellings that were renovated to save energy for spatial heating has been investigated. Concentrations of pollutants were monitored in three rooms of inhabited houses. Data of the outside air and ventilation and infiltration were also collected. Relationships were established between observed concentrations and ventilation. In some cases concentrations show a good relationship with the calculated air change rate, in other cases this relationship was poor or absent. Elevated levels of pollutants could be related to sources in most cases. The ventilation behavior of the inhabitants has a major influence on the concentrations. From this and other studies it can be concluded that, in general, making dwellings more airtight leads to higher concentrations of pollutants. Deviations from health‐related guidelines then become more likely.

Modeling ventilation and radon in new Dutch dwellings

“…Uncontrolled leakage is described by the airtightness of the building shell, which is often expressed by the q v(10) value, a measure of the amount of air necessary to keep the dwelling at a pressure of 10 Pa when outside doors, windows and ventilation openings are closed and all inside doors are open (Sherman, 1980; Van der Wal et al, 1991). A range of realistic q v(10) values was chosen for the different versions of the model dwelling.…”

“…The data on the distribution of the leaks among roof, walls and floor, were provided by TNO‐Building and Construction Research. These data are partly based on measurements of the leakage area of ground floors and partly on expertise from measurements of q v(10) values for Dutch dwellings (Cornelissen and De Gids, 1997; Schaap, 1995; Van der Wal et al, 1991; Versteeg and Schaap, 1999). Some distributions have been published elsewhere (Kornaat, 1999).…”

“…In practice, the average ventilation through the ventilation system is often much lower than the design capacity installed. Measurements showed that the ventilation rate could be as low as 33% of the maximum capacity under realistic conditions or 67% under favorable conditions (Van der Wal et al, 1991; Versteeg and Schaap, 1999). Model estimations were performed for two flow rates: 21 and 42 dm 3 /s.…”

“…Generally, mechanical ventilation systems tend to improve indoor air quality (Van der Wal et al, 1991). Several field studies indicated lower radon concentration in mechanically ventilated dwellings (Lévesque et al, 1997 or in dwellings in which mechanical ventilation is applied in the basement (Cavallo et al, 1996; Wang and Ward, 1997).…”

Ofis Ortamında Çalışanların İç Hava Kalitesine Maruziyeti ve Sağlıkla İlişkisi

“…It has been indicated in several studies that fine particulate matter coming from outdoors influences indoor air and personal exposure [13,14]. It was reported in the field study conducted by Wal et al (1991) that indoor concentrations of CO, CO 2 , NO, NO 2 , PM and HCHO can efficiently be decreased by ventilation [15]. In another study on urban houses in Australia, Molloy et al (2012) reported a reverse relationship between the indoor concentrations of air pollutants and time in which the building was constructed [16].…”