Indoor Air Quality Assessment via Experimentally Calibrated Dynamic Simulation: A Case Study in an Office Building in Panama

Authors

González, Jinela

Cedeño, María

Serrano, Jorge

Solano, Thasnee

Yeniveth, Dafni

Chen Austin, Miguel

Abstract

Air quality plays a decisive role in the performance of the occupants considering that people spend at least 70% of their life in interior spaces. This research aimed to determine if an air split unit in a public small office with two occupants a provide appropriate air quality for its employees. The ventilation performance was evaluated in passive and mechanical mode; the dynamic interface DesignBuilder simulated three case studies: the first one was to validate the data obtained with a temperature sensor during 10 workdays, the following two compared exclusive mechanical ventilation and exclusive natural ventilation with all windows and doors opened. The indicators used were CO2 concentration, indoor air renewal rates, and thermal comfort. The results showed that natural ventilation is insufficient to ensure high indoor air quality due to thermal discomfort, but acceptable CO2 concentrations were registered. In contrast, mechanical ventilation improved thermal comfort levels, but the CO2 concentration remained slightly outside acceptable limits. These results demonstrated that the office is not designed to operate passively, restricting their functionality with mechanical ventilation.