Title: “Ventilation retrofitting for improving indoor air quality”
Abstract
Residents in aged care homes constitute a significant proportion of Australia’s population. The elderly population is vulnerable to poor indoor air
quality. As mobility decline with age, they tend to stay longer indoors compared to normal population. Indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters in
selected aged care homes in Melbourne, Australia were monitored for one-year, and the advantages of adding a supplementary fresh filtered air
ventilation system in selected spaces were examined. The ventilation system was installed independent of the existing heating, ventilation and air
conditioning (HVAC) system in each of the facilities. The monitoring enabled a thorough understanding of the operation and indoor
environmental performance of the aged care homes and insights on various factors affecting IAQ. The results showed that air change rates (ACH)
were generally sufficient for low or average occupancy, but insufficient when the rooms were fully occupied. Up to 1000ppm reduction in CO2
concentration level was achieved with the addition of the supplementary ventilation system. A systematic approach in monitoring the air quality
regularly will improve the health, well-being, and quality of life of aged care residents and decrease hospital visits and associated expenditures.
Detailed monitoring of daily activities is very essential to supplement the findings
About the Speaker
Prof. Priya Rajagopalan is a building scientist and Associate Dean, Research and Innovation at the School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University. She is also the Director of the Post Carbon Research Centre that tackles complex challenges of decarbonising the built environment and infrastructures to transition to a sustainable, equitable and resilient future. Her research interests span from building energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, and urban climatology. She has coordinated several projects related to building performance and indoor air quality. She is Past President of the Architectural Science Association and Editorial Board member of Energy and Buildings journal.
