INDOOR AIR QUALITY OF FITNESS CENTRE: MULTI-PURPOSE SPORTS HALL 3 IN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

The demand of air-conditioned fitness centres has grown in hot and humid Singapore. Thus, it is essential to examine the indoor air quality (IAQ) in fitness centre. The scope of the study is the fitness centre in the National University of Singapore, Multi-Purpose Sports Hall (MPSH) 3, where the mechanical system is a fan coil unit with refrigerant in the cooling coil. The aim is to explore the possibility of whether this mechanical system can fulfil the requirement of SS554:2009. The IAQ of MPSH3 will be evaluated against the occupancy rate and the difference in perception of users before and after exercise. Objective measurement carried out reveal high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and total bacteria count at all occupancy rates. Parameters like temperature, relative humidity (RH), CO2 and bacteria are found to have correlation with occupancy rates. Temperature, RH and CO2 increase with the increase in occupancy rate while bacteria levels increases with the human activities at the different locations. Inadequate ventilation has led to unacceptable levels of air pollutants in MPSH3. Subjective measurements show high dissatisfaction (> 20 percent) among users towards the IAQ before and after exercise which further supports the objective measurement. A trend of increased dissatisfaction was noted after exercise. Strenuous activities performed within the fitness centre contribute to the high dissatisfaction on air movement, odour level, perceived air quality and overall satisfactory levels. However, the above results cannot be generalised in other fitness centre and larger sample size should be obtained for the survey.