Enhancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Sustainability in Post-Pandemic Office Settings: A Study on Displacement Ventilation Feasibility

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalyzed global efforts toward transitioning to a sustainable society, driving rapid innovation in building technologies, working practices, building design, and whole life cycle environmental impact consideration. In this pursuit, this study explores the enduring impact of these on an alternative ventilation approach for both existing building renovations and new building implementations. Comparing displacement ventilation to mixed-mode ventilation in a Finnish office building with varying occupancy densities, this study examines indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, total building energy performance, and embodied carbon. The findings reveal that the basic case of mixed ventilation has a specified system primary energy value of 38.83 kWh/m2 (with 28 occupants) and 39.00 kWh/m2 (with 24 occupants), respectively. With the displacement ventilation alternative, it reduces this by 0.3% and 0.1%, enhancing thermal comfort and decreasing turbulence as well as having a marginal decrease in embodied carbon. In general, the study offers three-fold contributions: insights into post-pandemic office mechanical ventilation design with an emphasis on sustainability and ecological footprint considerations, a concrete case study addressing climate action and human-centric IAQ design, and a multifaceted analysis using the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) paradigm, contributing to the groundwork for associated future research and policy progress.