INDOOR AIR QUALITY OF A LIBRARY IN ZERO ENERGY BUILDING

Abstract

The ZEB aims to produce sufficient energy to run itself by incorporating a combination of green building technology and clever building designs that take advantage of natural ventilation and lighting while harnessing solar energy. Since the establishment of the ZEB library in 2009, there has been no formal IAQ audit of the indoor premises to ascertain whether there is any compromise of the IAQ performance in the efforts of energy conservation and savings. Due to the limited studies conducted on the IAQ of libraries with the energy savvy SCTF system, this dissertation aims to examine the IAQ of a library equipped with the SCTF system.

The IAQ audit comprises of objective and subjective assessments to obtain a comprehensive appraisal of the ZEB library’s IAQ. The objective assessment included measuring and monitoring the thermal comfort parameters, chemical parameters and biological parameters. When compared against SS554:2009 and ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010, the objective results indicated that the thermal comfort parameters were not within acceptable limits while the chemical parameters were only marginally acceptable. In the instance of biological parameters, the bacteria concentrations were marginally above acceptable limits while the fungi concentrations were within acceptable limits. The responses in the subjective assessment reflected that less than 80% of the occupants were satisfied with the IAQ parameters in correlation to the measured IAQ parameters.

As a result, recommendations were proposed to address both objective and subjective aspects of the study such as the re-location of CO2 sensors, overnight purging, installation of air curtains and the live display of pollutant emission information.