VENTILATION CONDITIONS AND THE RELATED SYMPTOMS IN SELECTED INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS IN A UNIVERSITY

Limited data are available for understanding indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and the related health effects in schools in China. This paper reports the air exchange rates (AERs) of 50 rooms in a university in Tianjin, China, and explores the relationship between ventilation conditions and symptoms. All of the 50 rooms were visited during June to August, 2006, including 20 dormitories and 5 reading rooms using ceiling fans, 10 old classrooms with split air-conditioners in an old building and 10 new classrooms with air circulation cooling system in a new building, and 5 conference rooms with split air-conditioners. Temperature, relative humidity (RH), and CO2 concentrations were continuously monitored for 12h in each room, and out of the building simultaneously. Occupants in the rooms, all being undergraduates, were investigated by questionnaires regarding time-activity patterns, judgment about IAE in campus and comfortlessness possibly relative to bad ventilation. Room characteristics, ventilation methods and numbers of occupants and their activities were also recorded. AERs were derived from CO2 concentration decay curves obtained when rooms were unoccupied. CO2 concentration, temperature and RH ranged 615~5346 ppm, 18.9~39ºC and 30~90%, respectively. Average AERs were 1.2, 1.9, 1.6, 1.1 and 0.7 hr-1 in dormitories, reading rooms, old classrooms, ne