- Author
- Persily, A. K.
- Title
- Relationship Between Indoor Air Quality and Carbon Dioxide.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- Indoor Air Quality and Climate, 7th International Conference. Proceedings. Indoor Air '96. Volume 2. July 21-26, 1996, Nagoya, Japan, 961-966 p., 1996
- Keywords
- carbon dioxide | air quality | indoor air quality | ventilation | odors
- Identifiers
- carbon dioxide concentrations and body odor acceptability; percent outdoor air intake; tracer gas decay measurements of building air change rates; estimating ventilation rates using equilibrium analysis; mass balance approaches to calculating ventilation rates
- Abstract
- In some situations, measurements of indoor CO₂ concentrations can be used to assess indoor air quality and ventilation. However, oversimplified descriptions of measurement procedures based on CO₂ have been presented, and there have been many cases where indoor CO₂ concentrations have been misinterpreted. This paper describes the relationship of indoor CO₂ concentrations to building air quality and ventilation, with a focus on how CO₂ can be used to evaluate air quality and ventilation performance. While CO₂ concentrations do not provide a comprehensive indication of indoor air quality, they can be used to assess the acceptability of a space in terms of human body odor. Also, under some circumstances CO₂ can be used to evaluate building ventilation, specifically air change rates and percent outdoor air intake.