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Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Human Health in Buildings

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G: Energy and Buildings".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 4572

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Małgorzata Basińska

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Guest Editor

Institute of Environmental Engineering and Building Installations, Poznań University of Technology, Berdychowo 4 str., 61-131 Poznań, Poland
Interests: energy efficiency in buildings; energy and environmental costs; HVAC system; indoor and outdoor air quality; microbiological assessment

Dr. Katarzyna Ratajczak

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Environmental Engineering and Building Installations, Poznań University of Technology, Berdychowo 4 Str., 61-131 Poznań, Poland
Interests: energy efficiency in buildings; heating and ventilation; indoor air quality; outdoor air quality; decentralized ventilation; energy performance of buildings; swimming pools; mechanical ventilation; air conditioning
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

People are spending a large percentage of their life in rooms. Thus, ensuring healthy conditions in the internal environment and thermal comfort is a key issue. This is connected with the necessity of ensuring adequate indoor air quality as well as temperature and relative humidity. Indoor air is often polluted with physical, chemical, and microbiological pollutants. Although the subject of poor indoor air quality is well known, many problems related to the combination of outdoor and indoor air quality remain unsolved.

Controlling thermal comfort conditions and pollutant concentrations in the indoor environment remains a challenge for researchers and designers. The required quality level of the built environment is always increasing, and it is necessary to identify solutions that lead to improved thermal comfort and indoor air quality while minimizing energy consumption and operating costs.

To more effectively address indoor air quality and its underlying effects on human health, the use of new technologies connected with HVAC systems should be used. Depending on the location of the building, including in climates ranging from hot, moderate to cold, ensuring appropriate and healthy conditions and adequate air quality involves energy for the operation of HVAC installations. The costs of ensuring healthy conditions may be higher or lower depending on the climate and the requirements of different rooms.

We are seeking articles considering the different challenges related to occupant health and energy use, such as:

HVAC technologies for thermal comfort and indoor air quality control;
Human health issues related with energy usage;
Internal comfort in different climates and its impact on energy;
Air filtration and air purification techniques;
New methodologies and technologies to identify indoor air quality problems;
Measurements and monitoring of physical, chemical, and biological indoor and outdoor parameters;
Thermal comfort and indoor air quality in special spaces (nurseries, classrooms, etc.);
Outdoor air quality relevant to indoor air quality.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to highlight the impacts of ventilation and air conditioning on indoor air quality and to summarize the most important activities in this field to provide a better understanding of the main concepts related to indoor air quality and human health.

Dr. Małgorzata Basińska
Dr. Katarzyna Ratajczak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

HVAC
thermal comfort
indoor air quality
outdoor air quality
human health
air purification
buildings
energy efficiency

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 3504 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Heat and Moisture Management for Automatic Air Conditioning of a Domestic Household Using FA-ZnO Nanocomposite as Smart Sensing Material

by Hara Prasada Tripathy, Priyabrata Pattanaik, Dilip Kumar Mishra and William Holderbaum

Energies 2023, 16(6), 2654; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16062654 - 11 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1682

Abstract

Prior to the year 2000, air conditioning was not common in many cities throughout the world. However, today, 20 years later, air conditioning is common. This circumstance has a negative impact on the climate. Additionally, the situation regarding energy usage as a result of this is alarming. For a healthy and pleasant livelihood, indoor temperature and air flow must be controlled. False partitions with insulating layers have been used to regulate the temperature inside rooms, but they are unable to regulate the variation in humidity caused by the exchange of water between interior and exterior walls. In this manuscript, we provide a sensory system that can automatically detect relative humidity and temperature. Temperature is sensed at each layer of the false partition using an LM35-based integrated circuit and humidity is detected by an FA–ZnO nano-composite layer through an indoor false partition owing to changes in the material’s resistance. Depending upon the change in resistance based on the fluctuation in temperature, the corresponding current responds by arduino microcontroller, and thus triggers the automated ON and OFF switch for air conditioning. Living and non-living bodies both lead pleasant and healthy lives when indoor units are managed properly. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Human Health in Buildings)

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25 pages, 6845 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Retrofit Proposals for Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort in Historic Public Buildings: The Case of the Engineering Faculty’s Seat of Sapienza University

by Andrea Vallati, Miriam Di Matteo and Costanza Vittoria Fiorini

Energies 2023, 16(1), 151; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010151 - 23 Dec 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2197

Abstract

The building sector greatly contributes to energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas emissions, relating to the whole building life cycle. Boasting a huge building heritage of historical and architectural value, Europe faces challenging retrofit perspectives, as the potential for high energy efficiency has to be exploited while preserving the buildings’ original characteristics. The present work aims to feature the influence of a passive strategy on a heritage building in a mild climate. As historical its façade cannot be modified, its large glazing areas involve multiple issues, such as an increase in the heating (

Q_{H})

and cooling (

Q_{C}

) energy demands and the risk of thermal discomfort. Thus, window replacement was proposed for retrofitting. A dynamic simulation model in TRNSYS was validated with experimental data collected by the continuous monitoring of walls of different thicknesses and orientations. Solutions from replacement with Double Glazing Units (DGUs) with improved thermal insulation, to internal shading activation were applied. All configurations were compared in terms of

Q_{H}

Q_{C}

, thermal performance of the building and user comfort (Fanger). Low-e DGU enabled the saving of up to 14% of the annual energy demand, and shading also offered good results in summer, reducing

Q_{C}

by 19%. In summer, DGU involved a maximum PPD reduction of 10 units. Full article