Good Air Quality for Greater Performance
Humans spend around 90% of their lifetimes inside closed rooms, so a good room climate is important. Air quality in particular has a huge impact on our health and well-being. Airtight building shells may well be superior in terms of energy, but they prevent natural air exchange. However, they can be fully automated using appropriate ventilation systems and sensors. The air humidity (ideally 40-60%), air temperature, differential temperature, air ions, air quality and air velocity are also important for a healthy room climate.
Standardized guidelines exist for the composition of indoor air. To a great extent, these correspond to the feel-good factor. HVAC building automation is key to maintaining these. The ventilation plant room is networked with controllers and sensors. Air values in the rooms can be automatically optimized if the components that are fitted with sensors communicate reliable information to the plant room in order to control fans and regulate temperature, CO2 content and
air humidity. The building management technology then automatically compares the incoming information about the actual and nominal status in the room and gives the actuators the corresponding command to open or close dampers and valves or move them to an intermediate position. This enables the desired supply of air at a comfortable temperature, with the ideal level of humidity and a rich oxygen content.
An HVAC system is responsible for providing both thermal comfort and satisfactory indoor air quality for its inhabitants. Good indoor air quality is a fundamental goal of building design and operation. To provide indoor environments that are safe, healthy, productive, and comfortable, it is crucial that an HVAC system must be highly effective at controlling IAQ hazards whether chemical, particulate or biological while also being energy-efficient and cost-effective. Technologies are available today to promote better IAQ that are energy-neutral or better, and new technologies are emerging.
