IEA EBC Annex 86: Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality Management in Residential Buildings

Residential buildings should be able to provide good indoor air quality while ensuring high comfort and low energy use at lowest possible cost. This project will develop methods and compile data to evaluate different indoor air quality management strategies. Furthermore, innovative control strategies will be evaluated and tested in order to develop concrete recommendations for possible implementations of innovative ventilation systems for residential buildings.

Short Description

There is widespread agreement that climate protection requires energy-efficient construction and thus airtight construction. There is also agreement that a healthy and comfortable indoor climate must be ensured. However, there are still controversial views on the question of which ventilation strategies should be used under which boundary conditions, especially for residential buildings.

The overarching goal of IEA EBC Annex 86 is to accelerate the development of better and more energy-efficient indoor air quality management strategies. These are coordinated measures to improve IAQ, with a nonexclusive focus on ventilation measures.

For this purpose, a comprehensive health-based assessment method for indoor air quality will be developed (Subtask 1),
a database for quantification of pollutant emissions and data-based modelling of their sources will be created (Subtask 2),
smart materials (Subtask 3) and smart ventilation concepts (Subtask 4) will be (further) developed,
and the potential of cloud and IoT-based technologies will be explored (Subtask 5).

As part of the Austrian participation, relevant indoor air quality measurement studies from preliminary projects will be evaluated contributing to the planned international data repository. As a result, typical pollutant concentrations and pollutant sources in living spaces can be better quantified. In further data analyses, correlations between indoor air quality and other measured variables (e.g. outdoor temperature) and methods for data-driven estimation of occupancy density and/or air exchange rates will be investigated, among others. Furthermore, innovative ventilation control strategies (model-based and IoT-based) will be (further) developed and evaluated in a simulation study using a Monte Carlo approach. The most promising concept will be tested in a proof-of-concept mock-up in the laboratory. Specific recommendations for the implementation of innovative control strategies in residential ventilation systems are the expected outcome.

The findings of this project are to be disseminated nationally and internationally in order to promote the development of intelligent ventilation solutions that fulfill performance-based indoor air quality requirements, i.e. the protection of health, with high comfort at lowest possible cost, space and energy consumption.

Project Partners

Project leader

Dr. Gabriel Rojas
Arbeitsbereich Energieeffizientes Bauen & Digital Science Center
Universität Innsbruck
Technikerstrasse 13, 6020 Innsbruck
gabriel.rojas@uibk.ac.at

Project partners

DI Peter Tappler
IBO Innenraumanalytik OG
Stutterheimstraße 16-18/2, 1150 Wien
p.tappler@innenraumanalytik.at

Participants

Australia, Austria, Belgium (Operating Agent), Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA

Observer: Chile, Greece