Historical development of IEQ in Danish dwellings - has energy efficiency requirements inhibited positive IEQ developments?

Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, DK-9220, Aalborg, Denmark

^* Corresponding author: ler@civil.aau.dk

Abstract

This paper investigates developments in indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency over the last 150 years. Sixty-one Danish multi-storey dwellings were registered and scored using a newly developed indoor environment assessment tool called IV20. An overview of these results is presented, leading to an indication of which issues seem to be solved, which remain unsolved, and which new ones have arisen. These indoor environmental quality developments are then compared to developments in energy consumption, to test the hypothesis that some initiatives to reduce energy consumption has come at the expense of occupant comfort and health. An overview of energy efficiency developments for Danish multi-storey dwellings is given through analysis of data from the Danish energy labelling database. The results show a very strong positive development within energy efficiency and a very modest improvement in indoor environmental quality. This results of this research show that we have made huge improvements in energy efficiency without lowering the overall indoor environmental quality. However, the very modest IEQ improvement also indicate that IEQ improvements have been inhibited by energy efficiency initiatives and that further IEQ advances may depend on a shift of focus.