| Author: | Wong, Chun-sing |
| Title: | A new engineering approach for indoor air quality management in building |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2009 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Indoor air quality Indoor air pollution Buildings -- Environmental engineering |
| Department: | Department of Building Services Engineering |
| Pages: | xxxix, 328, [42] p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | In November 1993, the Government of HKSAR issued ‘A Green Challenge for the Community’, which was its second review of the 1989 White Paper. An Indoor Air Quality Management Group under the administration of the Environmental Protection Department was formed. It launched the ‘Guidance Notes for the Management of Indoor Air Quality in Offices and Public Places’ (GN) together with ‘A Guide on Indoor Air Quality Certification Scheme for Offices and Public Places’ in September 2003. Unfortunately, the response rate and the penetration rate have been low. Nevertheless, the specification of ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ IAQ criteria have been taken up as acceptable IAQ design and management criteria by building consultants and managers. Unfortunately, it confuses more the IAQ objectives rather than improving or enhancing it. Hence, much of the resources have been wrongly designated. When the candidate was involved in the early work of the development of the GN, the candidate, together with the supervisor in various presentations, have shown that the GN was too comprehensive in soliciting social participation. On the other hand, the annual one day sampling was not adequate in sustaining acceptable IAQ throughout the year. In this respect, carried out in this study, a modified sampling protocol for indoor air quality has been developed, which can be shown to reduce resources requirements by at maximum of two-third without increasing the risk. It is therefore particularly suitable for periodically monitoring of the IAQ rendering a true protection of the health and sustaining comfort. The philosophy is based on the examination of outdoor air quality, pollutant sources and ventilating air distribution; and the distinguishment of the nature of the pollutants. The simplified version, nonetheless, has influenced the annual comprehensive IAQ sampling into once in five years and that the further simplified version has been adopted in the GN for IAQ certification renewal purposes. The simplified protocol has also been adopted in the two Practice Notes for Managing Air Quality in Air-conditioned Public Transport Facilities. The usefulness of the verified version is validated through several thousands of the measurements of the pollutants in the Hong Kong offices. In the IAQ design and management perspective, the ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ IAQ criteria approach triggers a follow suit as it is a rational performance specification. Sarcastically, design of ventilation rate continually calculated on a prescriptive approach. This does more harm to the IAQ management because one would take it as the IAQ is under control. The philosophy in this study is to formulate the deficiency in order to render the accomplishment of the intended objectives of the GN. Three main problem areas are identified: the lack of typical annual outdoor air quality profile, the difficulty in measuring pollutant emission rates and the undefined ventilation quality degradation. Outdoor air quality is monitored at 14 locations in Hong Kong. This project takes tremendous effort in compiling over 8.9 millions of data into an analyzable format. Not only that the outdoor air quality in Hong Kong at these districts can be analyzed with respect to different air quality enhancement efforts, but also that an annual typical profile for each pollutant in each monitoring station is derived. It is the first of its kind. It has a great impact in a true ventilation design. To facilitate the ventilation calculation, a term ‘pollutant inventory’ in defined with a model on the evaluation of emission rates of pollutants with high precision. Finally, a four-tier scheme originally developed by the project supervisor is further elaborated into a pragmatic protocol for evaluation of ventilation quality degradation. This completes a protocol for ventilation management to determine optimum ventilation. A total solution for IAQ is challenging because of its comprehensive work scope. Managing acceptable IAQ is even more demanding as management cannot be totally relied on computation nor design. Therefore, an electronic IAQ manager is established in this project which is comprised of an intelligent compilation of building information, an IAQ optimal calculator, a geographical tool of managing fresh air systems, vendor information, process information, key performance indices, emergency management and etc. It covers IAQ management to reduce risk of infectious communicable disease. This eIAQ manager is a novel development. It is welcome by the industry and is expected to innovate the IAQ management protocol. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b23429811.pdf | For All Users | 10.59 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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