Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania

The purpose of this article is the assessment of energy efficiency and indoor air quality for a single-family house located in Cluj-Napoca County, Romania. The studied house is meant to be an energy-efficient building with thermal insulation, low U-value windows, and a high efficiency boiler. Increa...

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Autores principales: Mareș, Ion-Costinel, Catalina, Tiberiu, Istrate, Marian-Andrei, Cucoș, Alexandra, Dicu, Tiberius, Burghele, Betty Denissa, Hening, Kinga, Popescu, Lelia Letitia, Popescu, Razvan Stefan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8657112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886208
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312482
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author Mareș, Ion-Costinel
Catalina, Tiberiu
Istrate, Marian-Andrei
Cucoș, Alexandra
Dicu, Tiberius
Burghele, Betty Denissa
Hening, Kinga
Popescu, Lelia Letitia
Popescu, Razvan Stefan
author_facet Mareș, Ion-Costinel
Catalina, Tiberiu
Istrate, Marian-Andrei
Cucoș, Alexandra
Dicu, Tiberius
Burghele, Betty Denissa
Hening, Kinga
Popescu, Lelia Letitia
Popescu, Razvan Stefan
author_sort Mareș, Ion-Costinel
collection PubMed
description The purpose of this article is the assessment of energy efficiency and indoor air quality for a single-family house located in Cluj-Napoca County, Romania. The studied house is meant to be an energy-efficient building with thermal insulation, low U-value windows, and a high efficiency boiler. Increasing the energy efficiency of the house leads to lower indoor air quality, due to lack of natural ventilation. As the experimental campaign regarding indoor air quality revealed, there is a need to find a balance between energy consumption and the quality of the indoor air. To achieve superior indoor air quality, the proposed mitigation systems (decentralized mechanical ventilation with heat recovery combined with a minimally invasive active sub-slab depressurization) have been installed to reduce the high radon level in the dwelling, achieving an energy reduction loss of up to 86%, compared to the traditional natural ventilation of the house. The sub-slab depressurization system was installed in the room with the highest radon level, while the local ventilation system with heat recovery has been installed in the exterior walls of the house. The results have shown significant improvement in the level of radon decreasing the average concentration from 425 to 70 Bq/m(3), respectively the carbon dioxide average of the measurements being around 760 ppm. The thermal comfort improves significantly also, by stabilizing the indoor temperature at 21 °C, without any important fluctuations. The installation of this system has led to higher indoor air quality, with low energy costs and significant energy savings compared to conventional ventilation (by opening windows).
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spelling pubmed-86571122021-12-10 Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania Mareș, Ion-Costinel Catalina, Tiberiu Istrate, Marian-Andrei Cucoș, Alexandra Dicu, Tiberius Burghele, Betty Denissa Hening, Kinga Popescu, Lelia Letitia Popescu, Razvan Stefan Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The purpose of this article is the assessment of energy efficiency and indoor air quality for a single-family house located in Cluj-Napoca County, Romania. The studied house is meant to be an energy-efficient building with thermal insulation, low U-value windows, and a high efficiency boiler. Increasing the energy efficiency of the house leads to lower indoor air quality, due to lack of natural ventilation. As the experimental campaign regarding indoor air quality revealed, there is a need to find a balance between energy consumption and the quality of the indoor air. To achieve superior indoor air quality, the proposed mitigation systems (decentralized mechanical ventilation with heat recovery combined with a minimally invasive active sub-slab depressurization) have been installed to reduce the high radon level in the dwelling, achieving an energy reduction loss of up to 86%, compared to the traditional natural ventilation of the house. The sub-slab depressurization system was installed in the room with the highest radon level, while the local ventilation system with heat recovery has been installed in the exterior walls of the house. The results have shown significant improvement in the level of radon decreasing the average concentration from 425 to 70 Bq/m(3), respectively the carbon dioxide average of the measurements being around 760 ppm. The thermal comfort improves significantly also, by stabilizing the indoor temperature at 21 °C, without any important fluctuations. The installation of this system has led to higher indoor air quality, with low energy costs and significant energy savings compared to conventional ventilation (by opening windows). MDPI 2021-11-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8657112/ /pubmed/34886208 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312482 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Mareș, Ion-Costinel
Catalina, Tiberiu
Istrate, Marian-Andrei
Cucoș, Alexandra
Dicu, Tiberius
Burghele, Betty Denissa
Hening, Kinga
Popescu, Lelia Letitia
Popescu, Razvan Stefan
Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title_full Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title_fullStr Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title_full_unstemmed Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title_short Research on Best Solution for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Reducing Energy Consumption in a High-Risk Radon Dwelling from Romania
title_sort research on best solution for improving indoor air quality and reducing energy consumption in a high-risk radon dwelling from romania
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8657112/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886208
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312482
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