COMPARISON OF THE TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE OF HAZE RESILIENT TECHNOLOGIES IN 2 NATURALLY VENTILATED HOSTELS

Abstract

The 2013 smoke-haze episode in Singapore had the highest PSI level record of 401, which surpassed the PSI level of 226 for the 1997 South East Asian Haze. The haze pollution in Singapore has become an annual occurrence and there has been rising concerns as the exposure of the fine particulate matters found in haze results in adverse health impact. Despite both the local government and regional governmental efforts, the haze problem persists and the severity of the haze worsens. Hence, there is an urgent need to invent technological mitigation solution to reduce the adverse effect on human health due to the exposure to the haze. The existing air cleaner products available in the market for small room areas are only capable of filtering the indoor air with no ventilation into the enclosed room. This reduces the thermal comfort and indoor air quality in the room due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the haze resilient technology which has the highest filtration efficiency while providing good indoor air quality and thermal comfort to the occupants in a naturally ventilated space. Additionally, these haze resilient technologies are tested between rooms with different characteristics to determine if there are any effects on the technical performances. The 3 types of haze resilient technology used for the research study are the Fan-Filter Unit (FFU), Air Purifier and AiRazor. The FFU is found to provide better thermal comfort as it introduces fresh outdoor air into the enclosed room while reducing the concentration levels of particulate matters. Hence, the FFU has the highest ventilation rate as compared to the Air Purifier and AiRazor as they only recirculates and filters the indoor air. The FFU is also found to be suitable for long-tern usage in an enclosed room as it generates less noise and require less energy than the popular choice for portable air cleaners, the Air Purifier. From the experiment results, the FFU performs optimally when the room is tight with minimal leakages. Therefore, the room characteristics and choice of window type are found to have an impact on the technical performance of the FFU. However, there are limitations of this research study which affects the accuracy of the data collected. One of the biggest limitations is the conducting of the experiments during normal outdoor conditions when there is no haze in the ambient atmosphere. This resulted in the data collected for filtration efficiency to be inconclusive. Hence, future experiments can be conducted during the haze period to obtain true comparative data on the technical performances of the 3 haze resilient technologies.