How can we couple IAQ with day-to-day life?

IAQ in practice

May 14

IAQ is still rather largely taken for granted by the general public, and it’s time for the HVAC industry to find more creative and meaningful ways to emphasise its importance in day-to-day life. For Andrei Litiu, Building Performance Adviser at REHVA, this means challenging existing business models and offering good IAQ as a subscription-based service to encourage stakeholder collaboration, empower the public to make better decisions and guarantee good IAQ in use.

In 2021, the European Commission proposed amendments and improvements to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)1, including indoor air quality’s (IAQ) inclusion as a voluntary indicator. For Andrei Litiu, this is a milestone in the evolving narrative of an EU building stock that has mostly prioritised energy in benchmarking building performance. “Currently, IAQ although recommended is not concretely considered at the EU legislative level,” he says. “However, you are putting people in jeopardy when you place them in high-performing buildings that don’t deliver adequate IAQ, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) at large. It shouldn’t be the case, or we would go back to caves if we only cared about energy use.”

Working in silos

While technical advocacy is driving a lot of work on the policy level, the HVACR industry must work together to introduce the concept of IAQ in a meaningful and easy to understand way. “The proper policy push is good to have, but it is more important to drive internal motivation, thus ensure a natural pull from the market” he says.

Everyone working in silos leads to mistrust in ventilation systems, which often don’t operate as they should.
Andrei Litiu
Building Performance Adviser at REHVA

Digitalisation does not only help the people involved in the design, construction and operation of a building, it would also help empower the public. “We shouldn’t underestimate people,” says Litiu, “Everyone is smart enough to understand the potential health impact of indoor climates, but people have so many things going on. Building performance is decoupled from day-to-day activities regarding energy and IAQ. Seldom do people want or have the time to think about it. But if they are provided with the right information that is easy to understand, it would help them make the right decisions.”

IAQ is currently low on the agenda of most building stakeholders, with Litiu emphasising that heating and cooling are given higher priority mainly due to budget constraints, and compromises are made on ventilation unless specifically mentioned in the owner’s project requirements. As a result, IAQ is not always looked at from the design level or when it is, it might not fit the budget when reaching the construction/installing phase. Most ventilation systems, he says, are not ambitious. Even when ventilation systems are installed, designers only rely on data from suppliers and manufacturers and focus on complying with minimum requirements in Europe or at the national level, which are not that stringent and present compliance loopholes. “I’ve seen an anecdotal instance where poor design integration between specialities led to inadequate filter access, so they had to break the ceiling to change the air filter,” he says, by way of an example. It is also uncommon to see maintenance or implementation or follow-up procedures to install sensors that ensure the ventilation system operates as intended. He believes that these are critical aspects that manufacturers can be involved in from the design stages to the operating steps to provide valuable feedback, but that there isn’t enough collaboration between designers, installers, and facility managers to begin with. Everyone working in silos, he says, leads to mistrust in ventilation systems, which often don’t operate as they should.

How digital transformation can empower the people

For Litiu, his background in the building automation industry makes him a true believer that digitalisation and digital transformation are crucial to raising awareness among building owners and building professionals alike (architects, engineers) who would have the otherwise singular perspective on what it means to have good building performance. “I lived myself through this transformation, I was taught and educated in IAQ, and I know how to read diagrams, but only until I had an indoor air quality monitor at home with an app (real-time and historical data presented in a nudging dashboard) that I can really see IAQ and IEQ and the impact of personal actions. It was abstract and invisible. Although I had my mind wrapped around it, it’s only now visible.”

In the past, Litiu says that designers didn’t have access to vital data. Today, designers, installers and operators can draw from real-time information, which creates a feedback loop, and they can draw conclusions based on lessons learned and improve their services with an evidence-based approach. All these insights, he says, will also contribute to improving standardisation and legislation.

IAQ as a service and the need for expert advice

Although installing sensors would be a practical approach to raising awareness, Litiu believes these efforts must be complemented by meeting experts and creating more robust lines of communication to “IAQ or Building performances coaches”. These coaches could give input on options to course correct in the event someone is suffering from poor IAQ - whether by installing ventilation, air purifiers or other passive/active solutions as most approapiate. Litiu believes that to be truly transformative, the industry should offer IAQ as a service instead of selling a product or system. “I would like to see subscription-based service for optimum IAQ where individual occupants or even facility managers don’t need to bother with everything connected, such as maintenance or changing filters,” he says. Such a subscription model, he says, should have contextual information and values to benchmark IAQ. The next step, he says, is to get tailored information through easy-to-digest, possibly interactive infographic that offers more information by allowing users to get more details or providing access to the “IAQ coach.” Understandably, Litiu says there is always the dimension of personal privacy to be considered. ”There are many solutions that ensure people are not deprived of their intimacy,” he says, “it is something that needs to be dealt with in parallel.”

IAQ as a subscription-based service would also make IAQ accessible to people without requiring high capital investment. The level of service can be differentiated between use cases or even urban or rural application areas. Most importantly, Litiu believes that IAQ as a subscription-based service would help overcome the issue of stakeholders working in silos. They would be forced to collaborate to deliver optimal service and create an organic follow-up framework.

Litiu says that having such a framework could go a longway to improving quality of life. “Often, if people feel tired, or if they underperform, or feel drained of energy, they don’t relate it to IAQ. But what if you didn’t just have a bad day? What if you had poor IAQ the night before, which led to a lower sleep quality night? What if you are not fatigued? The IAQ is just low.” Such a mindset, he says, could have a significant spillover effect at work or educational facilities; people might start wanting it at home or might start asking for it at work.

I would like to see subscription-based service for optimum IAQ where individual occupants or even facility managers don’t need to bother with everything connected, such as maintenance or changing filters.
Andrei Litiu - Building Performance Adviser at REHVA

Ultimately, he says, most people can live without good IAQ – even though they won’t live well. “If you make it salient, people cannot overlook it,” he says. “You can have a causal relationship bringing the IAQ experience to the body level and see the tangible impacts of improving it. This could truly usher in a smart way to achieve healthy living.”