Comparison of performance of heat recovery ventilator and air purifier in reducing indoor PM10 concentrations in a classroom

Muhammad Hatta,Hwataik Han,S.I Tanabe,C Inard,P Wargocki,I Nastase,M.C Gameiro Da Silva,J Kurnitski,G Cao,H Zhang,L Mazzarela

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/201911106065

Abstract

Recently, outdoor particulate matters have become a serious problem in Korea. Pollutants exhausted from industrial plants and dust transported from adjacent regions contribute to the peaks in fine particle concentration. Indoor air quality is affected by ambient air pollution. Common methods for maintaining good IAQ from harmful outdoor particles are either through the usage of an air purifier (AP) or to install a filter in the heat recovery ventilator (HRV) system. It is important to evaluate the PM10 concentrations in a room using APs and HRVs depending on various system parameters, such as building air-tightness, indoor generation characteristics, and system filter efficiency. The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of AP with that of HRV in reducing PM10 levels in a classroom based on computer simulation. Results show that the filter efficiency of HRV should be increased to over 0.8 under the reference condition in order for the HRV to be compatible with the AP. Increasing the airflow rate of HRV is not an effective way of increasing its filter performance to outperform an AP. We found that HRV performs better as compared to AP in an indoor environment under dusty conditions with the generation rate of over seven times compared to the reference condition.

Highlights

People living in urban areas spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, where air pollution could be far greater as compared to outdoor environments
Because every building has different characteristics such as infiltration rate and/or filter efficiencies, we investigate the effect of infiltration rate on I/O ratio with respect to heat recovery ventilator (HRV) filter efficiency to obtain the best HRV condition to compete with air purifier (AP) performance
For the HRV to be compatible with the AP, the filter efficiency of HRV should be increased to over 80% under reference conditions

Summary

Introduction

People living in urban areas spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, where air pollution could be far greater as compared to outdoor environments. Indoor air pollution occurs as a result of physical, chemical, and biological factors. It is determined by the local outdoor air quality, building characteristics, ventilator systems, and indoor human activities [1, 2]. Students spend most of their time during a day in classrooms; children are more sensitive to air pollution than adults because they breathe higher volumes of air as compared to adults owing to their low body weight and developing immune systems [3]. They are influenced by several variables, such as air exchange rates and infiltration processes, outdoor air pollution levels, the type and intensity of indoor activities, and particle sizes [5]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion