Study of Air Quality in the Office Building

Abstract

This paper is devoted to assessment of air quality in an office space of a public building. Analysis of the results of researches made in this area by Russian and foreign authors showed that state of human health deteriorates at CO2 concentration level of 600-800 ppm and more and this can lead to decrease in performance and increased fatigue of office workers. Long-term human exposure to carbon dioxide can lead to chronic diseases. Results of experimental study of changes in carbon dioxide concentration in 30 m2 office space of a public building when 5 people are continually present in the office are given in this paper. CO2 concentration measurement was carried out during 24 hour period using MT 8057 portable carbon dioxide detector. According to the measurements results, a graph of CO2 concentration changes versus time was drawn. Conclusion that, in some periods of working day, air quality was unsatisfactory (from 10:40 to 13:30 and from 14:45 to 19:00: CO2 concentration exceeded 1000 ppm) indicates insufficiency of existing ventilation system and excessive room sealing (due to application of plastic windows). There is a need in technical solutions to improve efficiency of supply and exhaust ventilation.