Economic, Environmental and Health Implications of Enhanced Ventilation in Office Buildings.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Current building ventilation standards are based on acceptable minimums. Three decades of research demonstrates the human health benefits of increased ventilation above these minimums. Recent research also shows the benefits on human decision-making performance in office workers, which translates to increased productivity. However, adoption of enhanced ventilation strategies is lagging. We sought to evaluate two of the perceived potential barriers to more widespread adoption-Economic and environmental costs.

Methods

We estimated the energy consumption and associated per building occupant costs for office buildings in seven U.S. cities, representing different climate zones for three ventilation scenarios (standard practice (20 cfm/person), 30% enhanced ventilatio

SUBMITTER: MacNaughton P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4661675 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature