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Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 8459

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Alan Kabanshi

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Guest Editor

Department of Building Engineering, Energy Systems and Sustainability Science, University of Gävle, SE-801 76 Gävle, Sweden
Interests: indoor environmental quality (IEQ); integration of solar energy in buildings; integration of photovoltaic and electric vehicles in electricity grids; human behavior and rebounds in sustainable built environments
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions to a Special Issue of Sustainability on the subject area of “Energy-efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered”.

Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic have shown that indoor air quality and air distribution are important aspects of building design which should be considered alongside resource efficiency in energy-efficient buildings. The demand for higher air change rates to reduce indoor airborne infection transmission can increase ventilation energy use, but greater air exchange may be necessary to protect building occupants from airborne infections. Therefore there is a need to develop new strategies and methods that account for energy efficiency with consideration for indoor air quality and good air distribution. These methods and strategies will be important if ever in the future we experience another pandemic, and will also be useful to reduce infections during influenza seasons.

This Special Issue welcomes studies that deal with needs assessment in existing buildings, performance evaluation of ventilation systems in both residential and commercial buildings, indoor contaminant transport, air distribution, and airflow control in conjunction with building design and energy efficiency. The topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to:

Indoor environment and energy efficiency in buildings;
Air change rates and indoor air quality;
Ventilation systems in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic;
Ventilation strategies to reduce indoor transmission of airborne infections;
Designing air distribution for resilience during pandemics;
Peoples’ experiences and expectations of indoor environments during the pandemic;
Strategies for safe and healthy environments during pandemics;
Building energy efficiency in relation to indoor air quality;
Building and HVAC control for indoor environmental quality (IEQ);
Indoor climate in relation to indoor air quality;
Simulations of the transport and spreading of airborne infectious agents in buildings;
Influence of ventilation type on the risk of infection transmission.

Dr. Alan Kabanshi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

indoor environmental quality
building performance evaluation
airborne infections and indoor air quality
occupants’ experience during pandemic
building design for IEQ
airborne infection transmission indoors
COVID-19
air distribution and control

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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26 pages, 5606 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Internet of Things (IoT) in Buildings: A Learning Factory

by Enrique Cano-Suñén, Ignacio Martínez, Ángel Fernández, Belén Zalba and Roberto Casas

Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12219; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612219 - 10 Aug 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1827

Abstract

Advances towards smart ecosystems showcase Internet of Things (IoT) as a transversal strategy to improve energy efficiency in buildings, enhance their comfort and environmental conditions, and increase knowledge about building behavior, its relationships with users and the interconnections among themselves and the environmental and ecological context. EU estimates that 75% of the building stock is inefficient and more than 40 years old. Although many buildings have some type of system for regulating the indoor temperature, only a small subset provides integrated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Within that subset, only a small percentage includes smart sensors, and only a slight portion of that percentage integrates those sensors into IoT ecosystems. This work pursues two objectives. The first is to understand the built environment as a set of interconnected systems constituting a complex framework in which IoT ecosystems are key enabling technologies for improving energy efficiency and indoor air quality (IAQ) by filling the gap between theoretical simulations and real measurements. The second is to understand IoT ecosystems as cost-effective solutions for acquiring data through connected sensors, analyzing information in real time, and building knowledge to make data-driven decisions. The dataset is publicly available for third-party use to assist the scientific community in its research studies. This paper details the functional scheme of the IoT ecosystem following a three-level methodology for (1) identifying buildings (with regard to their use patterns, thermal variation, geographical orientation, etc.) to analyze their performance; (2) selecting representative spaces (according to their location, orientation, use, size, occupancy, etc.) to monitor their behavior; and (3) deploying and configuring an infrastructure with +200 geolocated wireless sensors in +100 representative spaces, collecting a dataset of +10,000 measurements every hour. The results obtained through real installations with IoT as a learning factory include several learned lessons about building complexity, energy consumption, costs, savings, IAQ and health improvement. A proof of concept of building performance prediction based on neural networks (applied to CO₂ and temperature) is proposed. This first learning shows that IAQ measurements meet recommended levels around 90% of the time and that an IoT-managed HVAC system can achieve energy-consumption savings of between 10 and 15%. In summary, in a real context involving economic restrictions, complexity, high energy costs, social vulnerability, and climate change, IoT-based strategies, as proposed in this work, offer a modular and interoperable approach, moving towards smart communities (buildings, cities, regions, etc.) by improving energy efficiency and environmental quality (indoor and outdoor) at low cost, with quick implementation, and low impact on users. Great challenges remain for growth and interconnection in IoT use, especially challenges posed by climate change and sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered)

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26 pages, 9889 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Predicting Contamination Spread Inside a Hospital Breakroom with Multiple Occupants Using High Fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation on a Virtual Twin

by Vijaisri Nagarajan, Nicolas Fougere, Elissa M. Schechter-Perkins, William E. Baker, Adrien Mann, Jonathan Jilesen and Zaid Altawil

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11804; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511804 - 1 Aug 2023

Viewed by 1128

Abstract

Mitigating the rise and spread of contaminants is a major challenge faced during any contagious disease outbreak. In densely occupied areas, such as a breakroom, the risk of cross-contamination between healthy and infected individuals is significantly higher, thereby increasing the risk of further spread of infectious diseases. In this study, a high fidelity transient fluid solver and Lagrangian particle-based method were used to predict the airflow distribution and contaminant transmission inside a detailed 3D virtual twin of an emergency hospital breakroom. The solver efficiently captured the contaminants emitted simultaneously from multiple talking occupants as well as their propagation inside the breakroom. The influence of airflow distribution on the aerosol spread inside the breakroom for two different air conditioning vent positions was demonstrated with all occupants and with reduced occupants. The baseline simulation with all occupants in the breakroom showed a higher risk of contamination overall as well as between adjacent occupants. It was observed that there was a 26% reduction in the contaminants received by the occupants with the proposed modified vent arrangement and a 70% reduction with the scenarios considering a reduced number of occupants. Furthermore, the fomite deposition and cross-contamination between adjacent humans significantly changed with different ventilation layouts. Based on the simulation results, areas with higher contaminant concentrations were identified, providing information for the positioning of UV lights in the breakroom to efficiently eliminate/reduce the contaminants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered)

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17 pages, 2853 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Performance of Diffuse Ceiling Ventilation in Classrooms: A Pre-Occupancy Study at a School in Southern Sweden

by Too-Chukwu Cyracus Ogbuagu, Elisabet Linden, Douglas MacCutcheon, Erling Nilsson, Torbjorn Persson and Alan Kabanshi

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 2546; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032546 - 31 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1510

Abstract

The implementation and application of diffused ceiling ventilation (DCV) is gradually gaining momentum, especially in Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. In countries such as Sweden, the application is limited despite the favorable conditions for implementation. The current study investigates the performance of DCV and mixing ventilation in a pre-occupancy field study for newly renovated classrooms in Southern Sweden. Two classrooms at the school were installed with diffuse ceiling ventilation while the rest had mixing ventilation. The objective of the study was to compare and evaluate the ventilation performance in terms of indoor environmental quality parameters such as thermal comfort, air quality indexes, airflow, and temperature distribution. Pre-occupancy measurements were performed in two classrooms with similar room characteristics, with one room running under mixing ventilation and the other under DCV. Constant temperature anemometers, thermocouples, and INNOVA thermal comfort were used to measure the indoor air speeds, temperature, and thermal comfort, respectively. Tracer gas measurements, with SF₆, were performed to assess air quality. Additionally acoustic measurements were conducted to assess the acoustic benefits of DCV on reducing ventilation noise. The results demonstrate that DCV offers similar indoor environmental conditions to mixing ventilation but has better acoustic performance especially on reducing the ventilation noise. Indoor environmental conditions were very homogeneous under DCV with mixing ventilation showing tendencies for short circuit ventilation. This study demonstrates that DCV has a potential for implementation in Swedish schools with minimal system modification on existing ventilation and air distribution systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered)

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18 pages, 2729 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integration of Indoor Air Quality Prediction into Healthy Building Design

by Shen Yang, Sebastian Duque Mahecha, Sergi Aguacil Moreno and Dusan Licina

Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7890; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137890 - 28 Jun 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2534

Abstract

Healthy building design is an emerging field of architecture and building engineering. Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an inevitable factor that should be considered in healthy building design due to its demonstrated links with human health and well-being. This paper proposes to integrate IAQ prediction into healthy building design by developing a simulation toolbox, termed i-IAQ, using MATLAB App Designer. Within the i-IAQ, users can input information of building layout and wall-openings and select air pollutant sources from the database. As an output, the toolbox simulates indoor levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂), total volatile organic compounds (TVOC), inhalable particles (PM₁₀), fine particles (PM_2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ozone (O₃) during the occupied periods. Based on the simulation results, the toolbox also offers diagnosis and recommendations to improve the design. The accuracy of the toolbox was validated by a case study in an apartment where physical measurements of air pollutants took place. The results suggest that designers can integrate the i-IAQ toolbox in building design, so that the potential IAQ issues can be resolved at the early design stage at a low cost. The paper outcomes have the potential to pave a way towards more holistic healthy building design, and novel and cost-effective IAQ management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered)

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Review

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35 pages, 3461 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Relationship between the Parameters That Characterize a Built Living Space and the Health Status of Its Inhabitants

by Constantin C. Bungau, Codruta Bendea, Tudor Bungau, Andrei-Flavius Radu, Marcela Florina Prada, Ioana Francesca Hanga-Farcas and Cosmin Mihai Vesa

Sustainability 2024, 16(5), 1771; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16051771 - 21 Feb 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 848

Abstract

Housing is an essential component of the living environment, and it has a substantial effect on physical and mental well-being. Multiple housing factors, including inadequate ventilation, overcrowding, construction materials, and exposure to allergens and pollutants, have been linked to a variety of diseases, such as respiratory ailments and dermatologic, rheumatologic, and cardiovascular disorders. The present narrative review shows the current state of knowledge in the field by centralizing and evaluating scientific publications with a focus on this linkage, detailing the implications for health status and the benefits of using natural materials in construction, implementing green building concepts, and applying technological transfer, where various decision factors can contribute to improving quality of life. Therefore, it is achievable to enhance the indoor air quality (IAQ) by promoting ventilation and air filtration, decreasing mold and moisture, and employing low-emitting materials in building construction and development. Overall, promoting healthy housing environments through an enhanced IAQ and using sustainable building practices can have a substantial positive effect on public health. To reduce the risk of housing-related diseases, future research should concentrate on identifying the most effective interventions to improve the living environment–health condition axis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Building Design with Indoor Air Quality Considered)

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