Impact of ventilation system operation and building products on perceived indoor air quality

Currently, the ventilation rate in non-industrial buildings is determined per human occupant regardless of the pollutant emissions from building materials, ventilation systems and other sources. With the intention of saving energy, the ventilation systems in many office buildings are turned off during the night. This process may reduce the quality of indoor air during day time, because of accumulation of contaminants in the air as well as the process of sorption when the air pollutants absorbed by cleaner surfaces at night are reemitted during the day. This thesis reports the results of a series of experimental studies on the impact of operation of ventilation system and the mixture of building materials on the perceived air quality. Experiments were performed in test chambers as well as in office buildings. Untrained panels of approximately35 subjects assessed the air quality in terms of acceptability and odor intensity. Experiments were performed using test chambers to determine the exposure-response relationship for tested building material