Indoor air quality - a key element of the energy performance of the buildings

The inadequate thermal performance of existing buildings and ventilation strategies in buildings are currently the biggest challenges for the housing sector in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of addressing the sustainability and health of the built environment. Lack of adequate ventilation of indoor spaces causes poor air quality and a higher incidence of sick building syndrome (SBS), which is manifested by affecting the comfort and wellbeing in the living space. Ensuring high energy performance buildings and indoor air quality is efficiently approached by limiting emissions from sources or by partial neutralization of the pollutants, an important stage being the establishing specific emissions levels by performing monitoring studies of indoor air quality. In this context, the paper presents experimental studies focused on monitoring the concentrations of volatile organic compounds, inorganic compounds and particulate matter, from indoor air in residential spaces located in the urban area of Bucharest, Romania. The obtained results highlight the fact that in analysed spaces there are concentrations of pollutants whose values should be considered to improve the indoor air quality while addressing effectively the upgrade of energy performance in buildings. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.