Outdoor sources of indoor air pollution

Technical Report · Mon Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5147516· OSTI ID:5147516

Silberstein, S.

Conservation measures that seal a building, like storm window installation, can significantly reduce its energy requirements. These measures also protect its occupants from air pollutants having outdoor sources but amplify any harmful effects of those generated indoors. Using these Fourier series techniques and an approximation of outdoor pollution peaks by step functions, we obtained the following results: the average daily concentration indoors is the same as outdoors for any pollutant with no indoor sinks if inside and outside air are assumed uniform (that is, well mixed). However, lowering a building's air exchange rate 4-fold will still protect its occupants from outdoor pollution sources, but only if the outdoor peak or variation above its average is much greater than its average, and the peak is short-lived.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, N.Y. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-02-0016
• OSTI ID: 5147516
• Report Number(s): BNL-50762
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
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& Utilization-- Buildings
500200* -- Environment
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
570000 -- Health & Safety
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
AIR POLLUTION
BUILDINGS
DAILY VARIATIONS
ENERGY CONSERVATION
FLOW RATE
FOURIER ANALYSIS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
POLLUTION
VARIATIONS
VENTILATION