Study of Air Quality in the Office Building

This paper is devoted to assessment of air quality in an office space of a public building. Analysis of the results of researches made in this area by Russian and foreign authors showed that state of human health deteriorates at CO₂ concentration level of 600-800 ppm and more and this can lead to decrease in performance and increased fatigue of office workers. Long-term human exposure to carbon dioxide can lead to chronic diseases. Results of experimental study of changes in carbon dioxide concentration in 30 m² office space of a public building when 5 people are continually present in the office are given in this paper. CO₂ concentration measurement was carried out during 24 hour period using MT 8057 portable carbon dioxide detector. According to the measurements results, a graph of CO₂ concentration changes versus time was drawn. Conclusion that, in some periods of working day, air quality was unsatisfactory (from 10:40 to 13:30 and from 14:45 to 19:00: CO₂ concentration exceeded 1000 ppm) indicates insufficiency of existing ventilation system and excessive room sealing (due to application of plastic windows). There is a need in technical solutions to improve efficiency of supply and exhaust ventilation.