Seasonal Indoor Humidity Levels of Apartment Suites in a Mild Coastal Climate
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 4
Abstract
It is essential to design and operate buildings with good indoor air quality because people spend most of their time indoors, and their productivity, comfort, and health depend on the quality of the indoor air. In addition to other indoor-air-quality parameters, the indoor humidity and temperature need to be controlled and maintained within acceptable ranges. Elevated indoor humidity creates favorable conditions for mold growth and building-envelope damage. To minimize such problems, it is important that designers have insight into the level of indoor humidity that will be expected in a building operating under a set of conditions and weather variation. In this paper, the results of monitoring the indoor temperature and humidity of four apartment suites with different occupancy levels are reported. Along with the indoor-air conditions, the local outdoor temperature and relative humidity were continuously measured for 17 months. The indoor humidities in the suites were correlated with the outdoor air temperature and humidity and compared with the European indoor climate class model. Moreover, the indoor-temperature and relative-humidity ranges in the four suites during the winter, spring, summer, and fall seasons and the temperature and humidity distributions within the suites are reported.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the British Columbia Housing Corporation (BC Housing) for financial support for the project and Affordable Housing Societies for giving access to the building of interest. The authors also acknowledge the technical support provided by Steve Roy; the coordination role played by the building manager, Jun Wu; and the cooperation of the residents, who gave us access to their suites and provided us with valuable information. The School of Construction and the Environment at the British Columbia Institute of Technology has provided financial and in-kind contributions to this project.
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Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 4 • December 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 22, 2014
Accepted: Feb 3, 2015
Published online: Apr 21, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 21, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
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