SEDL / STP / STP1002-EB / STP10143S

Investigation of a Washington, D.C. Office Building

Persily, AK
Mechanical Engineer and Group Leader, Center for Building Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Turner, WA
Manager, Building Air Quality Assessment Group, Harriman Associates, Auburn, ME

Burge, HA
Research Scientist, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Grot, RA
Mechanical Engineer and Group Leader, Center for Building Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD

Pages: 16    Published: Jan 1989

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Abstract

This paper describes the techniques used to study a Washington, D.C. office building with a long history of indoor air quality and thermal comfort complaints. More than twenty investigations, mostly relatively short term, have been conducted since 1978 to determine the causes of the building's problems and to recommend corrective actions. More recently a long term, intensive study of the building has been undertaken to study the building more thoroughly and to investigate the application of several techniques for studying office building air quality. These techniques include tracer gas measurements of air exchange rates, ventilation system performance and ventilation effectiveness, and measurements of the levels of various indoor pollutants including bioaerosols. This paper reviews the previous investigations of the building and describes the procedures used in the current study. Some preliminary results of the current effort are presented.