Indoor Air Quality

Learning Outcomes: 

1. Knowledge based

• Understand the fundamentals of indoor environmental control.
• Understand the many factors affecting indoor air quality.
• Understand the nature of indoor atmospheric pollutants, their sources, their sinks and their pathways, their indoor chemistry, as well as their effects on human health and sensitive materials.
• Understand the relationship between the building’s design, use and operation and indoor air quality/environment.
• Understand indoor atmospheric physics and chemistry.
• Understand basic concepts, protocols and applications of building diagnostics.
• Understand and use IAQ models as useful tools for controlling indoor air quality

2. Skills / Competences acquired

• Students will be able to conduct a survey of the parameters that affect indoor air quality and/or thermal comfort and identify the potential hazards and stresses for human health and/or sensitive materials.
• Students will be able to use the suitable instrumentation for indoor air pollution and micro-climatic conditions measurements.
• Students will be able to apply IAQ models.
• Students will be able to propose preventive or cost-effective mitigation strategies to sustain or improve IAQ.

General Skills: 

Search, analysis and synthesis of data and information,
ICT Use
Autonomous work
Teamwork
Working in an international environment
Working in an interdisciplinary environment
Project design and management

Course Content:
The course provides the fundamentals on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).
It is designed to provide a framework for understanding how indoor and outdoor sources of pollution, heat and humidity, materials of construction, lighting levels, noise, ventilation and air conditioning systems affect the indoor air quality in buildings. Also, which are the effects of poor indoor air quality on humans and on sensitive materials and methods on the management of indoor air.
The course has 7 components: introduction and overview indoor air quality (IAQ) issues; indoor pollutants and their potential sources; building factors affecting indoor air quality; effects of poor indoor air quality in human health and on materials; dynamics of indoor atmospheric pollutants; indoor air quality simulations; indoor air management (assessment of indoor air quality and simple preventive measures plus more advanced technological approaches of controlling indoor environment).
The student training is divided in a theoretical and in a computer-based modelling approach.

Suggested Bibliography:

1.  E-book «Indoor Air Quality» G. Loupa, available in the e-class.
2. «Indoor Air Quality», M. Lazaridis, TZIOLAS Press, 2008
3.  Papers