IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i4p855-d1337672.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving the Indoor Air Quality of Office Buildings in the Post-Pandemic Era—Impact on Energy Consumption and Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Diana D’Agostino

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy)

  • Federico Minelli

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy)

  • Francesco Minichiello

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy)

  • Maddalena Musella

    (Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy)

Abstract

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ventilation in buildings was not always given its due importance. The World Health Organization has highlighted the important role of air exchange with the outdoors in improving the air quality in buildings; buildings should, therefore, be equipped with mechanical ventilation or adequate air conditioning systems. This paper aims to investigate different retrofit solutions for air conditioning, evaluating them in terms of energy consumption and cost and the impact of increased outdoor air exchange rates on countering the propagation of COVID-19; the latter is the main novelty of the paper. As a case study, we take an existing office building located in Central Italy that was previously not equipped with a mechanical ventilation system (a system with primary air was introduced during the study). The energy analysis was conducted using dynamic simulation software after validation through energy bills; energy and economic analyses were conducted considering different external-air exchange rates. An optimal number of outdoor air changes was found to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection, a finding in line with the international literature. The increase in air changes with outdoor air leads to a rise in energy consumption and costs. These values were evaluated for different air conditioning systems and operational schedules. These drawbacks can be made less significant by combining interventions in the system with energy-efficiency measures applied to the building envelope.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana D’Agostino & Federico Minelli & Francesco Minichiello & Maddalena Musella, 2024. "Improving the Indoor Air Quality of Office Buildings in the Post-Pandemic Era—Impact on Energy Consumption and Costs," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:855-:d:1337672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/855/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/4/855/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aviv, Dorit & Chen, Kian Wee & Teitelbaum, Eric & Sheppard, Denon & Pantelic, Jovan & Rysanek, Adam & Meggers, Forrest, 2021. "A fresh (air) look at ventilation for COVID-19: Estimating the global energy savings potential of coupling natural ventilation with novel radiant cooling strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Diana D’Agostino & Martina Di Mascolo & Federico Minelli & Francesco Minichiello, 2024. "A New Tailored Approach to Calculate the Optimal Number of Outdoor Air Changes in School Building HVAC Systems in the Post-COVID-19 Era," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-36, June.
    2. Zheng, Xinyao & Zhou, Yuekuan, 2024. "Dynamic heat-transfer mechanism and performance analysis of an integrated Trombe wall with radiant cooling for natural cooling energy harvesting and air-conditioning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    3. Gu, Jiaan & Wu, Huijun & Liu, Jia & Ding, Yujie & Liu, Yanchen & Huang, Gongsheng & Xu, Xinhua, 2024. "A comprehensive review of high-transmittance low-conductivity material-assisted radiant cooling air conditioning: Materials, mechanisms, and application perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PA).
    4. Wang, Huan & Liang, Chenjiyu & Wang, Guijin & Li, Xianting, 2024. "Energy-saving potential of fresh air management using camera-based indoor occupancy positioning system in public open space," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    5. Costa, Vinicius B.F. & Pereira, Lígia C. & Andrade, Jorge V.B. & Bonatto, Benedito D., 2022. "Future assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the electricity market based on a stochastic socioeconomic model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    6. Pouranian, Fatemeh & Akbari, Habibollah & Hosseinalipour, S.M., 2021. "Performance assessment of solar chimney coupled with earth-to-air heat exchanger: A passive alternative for an indoor swimming pool ventilation in hot-arid climate," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    7. Amit Kant Kaushik & Mohammed Arif & Matt M. G. Syal & Muhammad Qasim Rana & Olugbenga Timo Oladinrin & Ahlam Ammar Sharif & Ala’a Saleh Alshdiefat, 2022. "Effect of Indoor Environment on Occupant Air Comfort and Productivity in Office Buildings: A Response Surface Analysis Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-24, November.
    8. Moghadam, Talie T. & Ochoa Morales, Carlos E. & Lopez Zambrano, Maria J. & Bruton, Ken & O'Sullivan, Dominic T.J., 2023. "Energy efficient ventilation and indoor air quality in the context of COVID-19 - A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    9. Rengin Aslanoğlu & Begüm Ulusoy & Jan K. Kazak, 2024. "Air Quality of Private Interiors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Dormitory Interiors as Shared Spaces," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-13, January.
    10. Carlos C. Duarte & Nuno D. Cortiços, 2022. "The Energy Efficiency Post-COVID-19 in China’s Office Buildings," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-60, March.
    11. Shuailing, Liu & Guoyuan, Ma & Xiaoya, Jia & Shuxue, Xu & Guoqiang, Wu & Yumei, Zhang, 2023. "The thermal performance and applicability analysis of the composite ventilation system with heat recovery in ultra-low energy buildings," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:4:p:855-:d:1337672. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.