| Title |
Cost Benefit Analysis of Improved Indoor Air Quality in Office Buildings |
| Authors |
Kwon Kyung-Woo ; Park Jun-Seok |
| Keywords |
Work Performance ; Indoor Air Quality ; Ventilation Rate ; Cost Benefits ; Office Buildings |
| Abstract |
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential work performance benefits of increased ventilation rates. Perceived air quality, Sick Building Syndrome(SBS) symptoms and work performance were experimented in a normally furnished Mock-up space ventilated with an outdoor. Six groups of three man and female subjects were exposed to the three ventilation rates, 5, 12 and 21 L/sec per person and the temperature, the relative humidity and all other environmental parameters remained unchanged. Each exposure lasted 2 hours and the subjects were unaware of the intervention and remained thermally neutral by adjusting their clothing. They assessed perceived air quality and SBS symptoms at intervals, and performance simulated normal office work. From the results of the experiments, the performance of three simulated office works improved monotonically with increasing ventilation rates. In case of text-typing, the performance was improved about 5.3%(P<0.08), and the addition and character re-arrangement was also improved about 4.2%(p<0.09) and 9.2%(p<0.18). This study shows the benefits for health, comfort and the performance of the occupants in office buildings with increasing the outdoor air ventilation rate. The analysis of cost benefits of improved indoor air quality based on the energy simulation shows that the economical benefit from the improved work performance is more lager than the energy costs of increased ventilation rate. |