A performance study on control of evaluation factors of gbms and sbms to promote indoor air quality in Taiwan

Under the subtropical climate of Taiwan, indoor building materials have a significant impact on the poor indoor air quality, which leads to health problems and increased risks of cancer. Currently, the ‘Green building materials labels’ and the Indoor Air Quality Act have been promoted to control the source of pollution, namely the fugitive pollutants of building materials and the air concentration in the indoor space. Emphasis is placed on advanced administrative control of total volatile organic compound (TVOC) to reduce the harm of fugitive pollutants of indoor building materials to health. The purposes are to prevent other toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from affecting indoor air quality, effectively control the harm to residents, reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning for removing pollutants through ventilation, and reduce carbon emissions and protect the environment. Thus, how to balance the building indoor ‘healthy air quality’ and ‘energy-saving ventilation’ has become an important issue. It also probes into the application of different Sorptive building materials (SBMs) in indoor space to adsorb the pollutants in the air (formaldehyde) by calculating ‘sorption flux per time per area’, ‘sorption efficiency’ and ‘sorption equivalent ventilation rate per area’. According to the standard method of ISO 16000, this study conducted the building material fugitive and absorption experiments by testing with building material (0.099 m³) environmental chamber (25^oC, 50% relative humidity (RH), loading factor 0.4 m²/m³). The research results showed that the emitted concentration of hexanal from low-emission building materials (L-EBMs) is 175.8 μg/m³ that have exceed odour threshold (57.5 μg/m³) and increased ventilation rate can effectively lower high-emission building materials (H-EBMs) and pollutant concentration. The sorption equivalent ventilation rate per area of SBMs is also the most effective. If used, it can reduce ventilation and maintain indoor air quality.