Multizone airflow and pollution simulations of indoor emission sources

A health impact assessment of the indoor pollution was performed for various indoor sources: oven for heating, cooking, photocopy machine and smoke cigarettes. The mortality levels and hospital admissions associated with exposure to PM2.5 and NO₂ concentrations have been calculated. We have modelled a two level house in Madrid city center where the office and the living floors are in the same building. The people follow a predefined activity patterns (time profiles) in the outdoor and indoor environments. In this experiment, we have performed a full year simulation using the EnergyPlus model to obtain the following parameters: building energy use, thermal behavior, airflow and indoor air quality simultaneously. Outdoor air quality and meteorological conditions were provided by the output of running the very well-known model WRF/Chem. The health impacts of the indoor emitting sources are higher in the warm months due to the operation of the air conditioning system. The largest impact on health is produced by the emissions that are released during cooking. The results also show a high correlation between indoor and outdoor concentrations when indoor emissions are not considered.