Indoor air management
The EU monitors and regulates outdoor air quality. However, indoor air quality can be worse and Europe currently sets no applicable standards, making auditing indoor air quality difficult and complex. Funded by the EU, the AIRLOG (Integrated platform for intelligent indoor air quality audit management) project aimed to develop a web-based indoor air quality audit management platform. The development was intended to lower the costs while improving and automating the process of conducting air quality audits. A further purpose was to suggest the most effective remediation of indoor air pollution. The system was planned to incorporate an adaptive decision-support system (DSS) and other modules, including a simulator. The project set 18 technical goals relating to development, dissemination and exploitation of the system. Early stages involved documentation and analysis of the auditing process. Details included the EU state of the art, plus key pollutants and levels. The team collated and analysed legislative, guideline and process information for five EU countries. Utilising such data, researchers established the AIRLOG platform architecture, based on four complementary approaches. The work yielded a five-step AIRLOG audit process, which was compared against existing processes. Subsequently, the team defined the architecture for a simulation tool, including two supplementary applications. The software tools were able to solve various simulations and perform calculations for any contaminant type, although only the most relevant pollutants were included. A human thermal model was able to estimate sensation and comfort under various thermal boundary conditions. Other developments included defining the architecture for the web-based management platform, including the DSS rule-based engine. The system was tested on a large public building in Portugal. Training of partner small and medium-sized enterprises in use of the software resulted in modifications. Use of the final system for real audits demonstrated time savings of 20 % for field work and 58 % for report preparation, representing an overall saving of 48 %. Cost savings averaged 39 %. In addition to such savings, the AIRLOG project offered substantial market potential and revenues. Ultimately, the work means an improved ability to conduct air quality audits, meaning healthier air for many Europeans.
Keywords
Indoor air, air quality, audit management
