A study of perceived air quality and sick building syndrome in a field environment chamber served by displacement ventilation system in the tropics

This paper presents a study of Perceived Air Quality (PAQ) and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) using tropically acclimatized subjects in a Field Environmental Chamber (FEC) served by Displacement Ventilation (DV) system. The FEC, 11.12 m (L)×7.53 m (W)×2.60 m (H), simulates a typical office layout. A total of 60 subjects, 30 males and 30 females, were engaged in sedentary office work for 3 h. Air velocity in the space near the subjects was kept at below 0.2 m/s. Relative Humidity (RH) at 0.6 m height and outdoor air provision were maintained at 50% and 10 l/s/p, respectively. Subjects were exposed to three vertical air temperature gradients, nominally 1, 3 and 5 K/m, between 0.1 and 1.1 m heights and three room air temperatures 20, 23 and 26 °C at 0.6 m height. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of temperature gradient and room air temperature (at 0.6 m height) on PAQ and SBS in DV environment. It was found that temperature gradient had insignificant impact on PAQ and SBS. Dry air sensation, irritations and air freshness decreased with increase of room air temperature.