Indoor Air Quality
The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University aims to produce a healthy and comfortable environment for its inhabitants, using emerging technologies to protect public health. The purpose of this paper is to produce a set of recommendations for siting, construction, operation and maintenance to produce a healthy environment within The Home Depot Smart Home. This study was performed to determine the actions which would produce the highest possible level of indoor air quality. The study considered the siting, construction, operation and maintenance of The Home Depot Smart Home in the context of indoor air quality and LEED standards. After considering the research and standards found in this paper, the results indicate that careful selection of building materials, the installation of a MERV 13 class media filter, the installation of a monitoring and reporting system for future research, and the enforcement of several policies.
The materials used to build the house itself are key in reducing the level of pollutants emitted into the indoor environment. Careful selection of materials which meet the LEED v2.1 specification for low-emitting materials will minimize the amount of potential pollutants in the environment, reducing the load on the filtration systems and improving air quality. This is important to control the sources of pollution within the house, as well as helping reach The Home Depot Smart Home goal of attaining LEED v2.1 Platinum certification.
The ventilation within the house should adhere to the appropriate standards listed within the LEED v2.1 specification. These standards ensure that air ventilation is sufficient to keep air fresh and clean within the house, and that the pollutants within the house remain diluted. No specific recommendations were made due to the heavy dependence upon the exact design of the house, which requires the architect’s involvement in implementing these standards. Future consideration and research is needed in this area by the appropriate people, as listed under Section G.
The HVAC system within The Home Depot Smart Home should implement the Air Handler 4E412 filter solution for the filtration system. This system meets the filtration requirements for LEED certification within the house with a minimum of energy loss. This is key to producing a healthy environment while maintaining the eco-friendly goals of The Home Depot Smart Home.
The operation and maintenance of The Home Depot Smart Home should prohibit the use of tobacco within the house, encourage plant life, ensure the proper care and maintenance of all air subsystems, and include robust monitoring and reporting systems. These systems ensure that The Home Depot Smart Home’s operation will meet the goals of high indoor air quality and environmental friendliness, while also allowing future research to help improve indoor air quality as future innovations emerge.
The Home Depot Smart Home should be equipped to not only improve indoor air quality for the occupants, but also provide useful and relevant data on the effectiveness and operational dynamics of the air quality control systems. To this end, a monitoring and reporting system should be installed which collects data on carbon dioxide, temperature, humidity, airflow, and smoke levels and provides this data in an easily accessible and useable manner for occupants of the house to analyze.
Advantages: Improved indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and lower levels of pollutants within the house. Higher control over the indoor environment.
Disadvantages: Greater cost and more technical expertise required to implement such a system.
Future research considerations within The Home Depot Smart Home are key to the goal of The Home Depot Smart Home in encouraging innovation and staying at the forefront of technological advancement. The Indoor Air Quality team’s main goals for future research are ensuring that radon levels within the house are below the recommended levels, completing the consultation in regards to the filtration system, and exploring the full depth of the monitoring and reporting system, and ensuring adequate ventilation systems are installed to meet standards. The radon levels within the house cannot be accurately measured until the house is built, which means that upon completion of the house, radon tests should be performed to ensure the levels of radon within the house. The filtration system should not be a finalized decision until consultation is complete; to ensure the system chosen meets both the LEED standards and the operational expectations of the team. The monitoring and reporting system has also been considered in only the standard oriented mindset, and shows promise for more exciting and innovative uses within the house. This area will be looked into in greater depth over the summer to develop ways in which the monitoring and reporting systems can be utilized to greater effectiveness, as well as integrating into completely into the other subsystems within the house to ensure intelligent communications between house systems.