- Author
-
Dols, W. S.
|
Persily, A. K.
|
Nabinger, S. J.
- Title
- Environmental Evaluation of a New Federal Office Building.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- General Services Administration, Washington, DC
- Book or Conf
- American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. and American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists and American Industrial Hygiene Association. Environments for People. IAQ 92. October 19-21, 1992,
San Francisco, CA,
85-93 p.,
1992
- Keywords
-
carbon dioxide
|
carbon monoxide
|
formaldehyde
|
indoor air quality
|
office buildings
|
radon
|
ventilation
- Abstract
- A study of the environmental performance of three new office buildings is being conducted, involving long-term monitoring of building ventilation rates and indoor levels of selected pollutants, both before occupancy and during early occupancy. This paper describes the effort in a seven-story office building in Overland, Missouri. The measurement results discussed in this paper include tracer gas decay measurements of ventilation rates and the concentrations of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, radon, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ventilation rates measured in the building ranged from 0.3 to 2.6 air changes per hour (ach). The measured minimum air change rates are below the recommended minimum level in ASHRAE Standard 62-1989, i.e., 10 L/s (20 cfm) per person. The daily maximum concentrations of carbon dioxide in the building ranged from about 500 to 800 ppm, depending primarily on the building air change rate. Carbon monoxide concentrations generally track outdoor levels, seldom rising above 1 ppm. Several episodes were observed in which the outdoor levels of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide increased dramatically late in the evening, raising the indoor levels as well. Measured radon concentrations were 2 pCi/L or less on the sub-basement level and less than or equal to 0.5 pCi/L on all other levels of the building. The formaldehyde concentrations in the building ranged from 0.03 to 0.07 ppm. The levels of volatile organic compounds in the building were not unusual relative to measurements in other new office buildings, ranging from about 0.5 to 1 mg/m³ on floors with carpet and no furniture or construction activity. Once furniture was installed, or when construction was in progress, the VOC levels increased above 1 mg/m³.