Field Measurements of Perceived Air Quality in the Test-Bed for Innovative Climate Conditioning Technologies

Field measurements of perceived air quality were conducted in an experimental test bed for innovative building technologies situated at the Czech Technical University in Prague. The technologies included photocatalytically active paint, vacuum porous insulation and wall plaster containing phase change material.

Technologies were installed in eight offices as part of the research project Clear-up. The offices were primarily used to carry out comparative tests for individual technologies. The present paper describes measurements done in parallel to the comparative tests to investigate the potential influence of aforementioned technologies on the perceived air quality.

Additionally, the effect of Demand Controlled Ventilation (DCV) on the perceived air quality was tested. Measurements comprised of the assessments of perceived air quality and objective measurements of operative temperature, relative humidity and CO2 concentration. Results showed that the mean sensory pollution load in the tested offices was 0.09±0.02 olf/m2 (mean±SEM).

This refers to a low-polluting building according to CEN Report CR 1752. The acceptability of the air quality was worst in unoccupied offices ventilated at 20 m3/h. Application of DCV decreased the CO2 concentration, but did not result in statistically significant improvement of the perceived air quality.

It was not possible to quantify the influence on the sensory pollution load of particular technologies tested as part of the Clear-up. However, the sensory pollution load in unoccupied offices equipped with those technologies was on average 0.07 olf/m2 lower than in the reference office.