The Effect of Building Fan Operation on Indoor-Outdoor Dust Relationships

Observation-driven generation of texture maps depicting dust accumulation over time

The perception of realism in computer-generated images can be significantly enhanced by subtle visual cues. Among those, one can highlight the presence of dust on synthetic objects, which is often subject to temporal variations in real settings. In this paper, we present a framework for the generation of textures representing the accumulation of this ubiquitous material over time in indoor settings. It employs a physically inspired approach to portray the effects of different levels of accumulated dust roughness on the appearance of substrate surfaces and to modulate these effects according to the different illumination and viewing geometries. The development of its core algorithms was guided by empirical insights and data obtained from observational experiments which are also described. To illustrate its applicability to the rendering of visually plausible depictions of time-dependent changes in dusty scenes, we provide sequences of images obtained considering distinct dust accumulation scenarios.

Evaluation of health benefits for improving indoor air quality in workplace

In contrast to a majority of reported damage-cost literature being focused on outdoor pollution, this paper describes the development of a protocol that links population exposure data with reported epidemiological concentration-response coefficients. A change in indoor particulate level is expressed as a change in total exposure levels, which is then linked with a corresponding change in ambient particulate concentrations before evaluating the associated health benefits. In this study, the development of protocol is illustrated by using a typical office building environment and daily time activity patterns of office occupants in Hong Kong. Our results indicate that some benefit gains for the owners-employers and the society would be anticipated if certain filter set configurations had been adopted. However, the amount of benefit gains for the owners-employers is shown to be increased with the average salary level of employees and the duration of their stay in offices.

Assessing the benefit and cost for a voluntary indoor air quality certification scheme in Hong Kong

A voluntary indoor air quality certification scheme has been proposed in Hong Kong for assessing and evaluating the indoor air quality level in a variety of public places like offices, restaurants and pubs. The scheme intends to promote the public well being, however, its technical and financial practicality has led to serious discussions among the government officials, practitioners and premises owners. Accordingly, this study intends to develop a protocol for examining its financial viability by linking the appropriate dose-response and economic data with the results from indoor micro-environment models. The financial viability of the scheme is evaluated by examining the cost and benefit associated with compliance on the different prescribed indoor particulate (PM10) levels. According to our analysis, the indoor action level of 180 microg/m3 as 8-h mean (with the objective of protecting the health of general public) does not require office owners to improve beyond the base setting. Nevertheless, owners should consider altering the base settings in their air conditioning systems so as to secure more benefit on every dollar they spent. On the contrary, the 20 microg/m3 level as 8-h mean (with the objective of providing comfort) is not considered to be financially viable for office owners as they will incur financial loss on compliance. Subsequent sensitivity analysis indicates that the total net benefit derived have a great dependency on the value-of-life estimates used. If conservative health estimates are adopted, the optimum level determined to be beneficial to both owners and the society will be 55 microg/m3, which can be obtained by operating the air conditioning system with a ventilation rate of 10 l/s, primary filters of 80-85% efficiency and secondary filters efficiency of 60-65% arrestance. This information should be extremely valuable for government officials and policy makers in assessing the financial viability of the voluntary indoor assessment scheme.