Strategy for controlling indoor air quality based on carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations

The project investigates how to determine air quality based on carbon dioxide concentrations (CO2).
The main objective of the project is to develop a coherent strategy for managing indoor climate and ventilation of buildings, using CO2, depending on whether CO2 is to be considered as a harmful pollutant or only as a proxy for other pollutants.

Buildings are ventilated with a significant energy consumption as a result to maintain the indoor concentration of air pollutants at an acceptable level, but this level may be set too high or too low. The problem is that we do not yet know which indoor air pollutants have a negative impact on the users of buildings. The "active substances" could be emissions from building materials and furniture materials that can be removed at the source, or it could be bioeffluents from the building users themselves. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the latter. It is emitted at a known rate and it is traditionally used to indicate the presence of other pollutants so that the amount of ventilation can be assessed. CO2 has traditionally been assumed not in itself to have any negative effects at the levels that occur in buildings. A recently published study has indicated that there are effects.

This project will confirm or deny whether there are effects. By obtaining data on basic ventilation needs when there are human bioeffluents in the air, an appropriate strategy must be developed to ensure that the ventilation is used energy efficiently but so that there are good conditions in terms of health, comfort and performance.

Phase 1. Literature study
Phase 2. The climate chamber measurements with people exposed to different CO2 levels
Phase 3. Use of results in relation to actual exposures and assessment of consequences for the management of ventilation and energy consumption