BSUG October 20th - Indoor air quality during lockdown: Towards a new health-integrated modelling framework

Upcoming BSUG

Indoor air quality during lockdown: Towards a new health-integrated modelling framework





Target Audience:

Engineers, Architects, & Simulationists

 

Date and Time:

October 20th, 2021 – Noon to 1:00 p.m. MT

 

Location:

 

Zoom Webinar


 

 

Registration:

WEBINAR Presentation Click Here

Description:

Throughout the world governments instituted a variety of measures to try to curb the spread of COVID-19 and improve public health. In the UK that took the shape of a nationwide lockdown as of the 23rd of March 2020. This mandate continued until the 13th of June. These restrictions led to atypical patterns of home occupancy, the implications of which are still unknown.

The work shown in this presentation took advantage of an existing IAQ and window operation monitoring study taking place in east London, UK. One-year’s worth of monitored data on indoor and outdoor environment parameters along with occupant use of windows was used to analyze the impact of lockdown on IAQ and infer probabilistic models of window operation behavior. Moreover, using on-site CO2 data, monitored occupancy and operation of windows, the team calibrated a thermal performance model of one of the spaces to investigate the implications of alternative ventilation strategies.

The use of this type of model, one in which energy, thermal, and air quality performance is integrated has great potential to be used to better understand how changes in our built environment impact health, and at what cost. A conceptual framework for modelling health impact into the built environment will also be introduced.


Bio:

Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper joined UCL’s Bartlettt School for Environment, Energy and Resources at the Institute for Environmental Design & Engineering as a doctoral researcher in 2019. Prior to starting at UCL she was an associate professor of architecture, and the director of the UI - Integrated Design Lab. She holds degrees in architecture and environmental health, and her research has most recently been focused on building controls for the reduction of exposure to indoor air pollutants. Future work is focused on linking health impact models to indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy models to develop building control algorithms that improve IAQ whilst maintaining thermal comfort and energy efficiency.


 

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