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Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group

The Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Group develops computer simulation programs and measurement procedures and applies them to better understand the phenomena of air and contaminant transport in buildings and to support industry efforts to improve environmental conditions in buildings in a cost-effective manner. The results of this research are providing reliable methods and to evaluate ventilation characteristics and indoor pollutant

The modeling efforts include the development and application of multizone airflow and indoor air quality models, specifically the CONTAM series which predicts airflows and contaminant concentrations in multizone building systems. CONTAM is based on a graphic interface that allows the user to draw floor plans on a "sketchpad" and employ "icons" to represent airflow paths, ventilation system components, and contaminant sources. CONTAM has been used at NIST to study the indoor air quality impacts of HVAC systems in single-family residential buildings, ventilation in large mechanically-ventilated office buildings, and radon entry and transport in large residential, office, and school buildings.

Measurement procedures are being developed and demonstrated to evaluate building ventilation and indoor pollutant concentrations. These procedures range from sophisticated tracer gas methods used predominantly in building research efforts to less involved procedures that can be employed by building operators. NIST researchers are continually developing new test procedures, and then demonstrating them in the field to evaluate their feasibility and reliability. The efforts in which these procedures are demonstrated in the field has resulted in the development of an important database of building ventilation and indoor air quality performance.

Staff Directory

 

News and Updates

Projects and Programs

Water Use in High-Performance Buildings

Ongoing
The objective of EL’s Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings research program is to advance measurement science to move the nation toward net-zero energy

Publications

Chemical characteristics of indoor aerosol particles and surface films

Author(s)
Rachel O'Brien, Cate Shirilla, Amy Hrdina, Emily Legaard, Kathryn Mayer, Marina Vance, Dustin Poppendieck, Delphine Farmer
Indoor surfaces and the films on them play important roles in indoor air quality due to the high surface area to volume ratios in our homes. The chemical

Software

Quick Indoor CO2 (QICO2) Tool

This tool is used for implementing the CO 2 concentration calculations. After providing the relevant inputs, or selecting from a number of predefined cases, the

LoopDA

LoopDA is a natural ventilation design tool developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Version 3.0 is an update to the original version 1

Awards

Product and Services

Contacts