Methodology for determining Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in residential buildings for the elderly by monitoring key environmental parameters

Architecture and Design Department, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Montepríncipe, Campus de Boadilla del Monte, Universidad San Pablo-CEU, CEU Universities, 28668, Madrid, Spain

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Abstract

People spend most of their time indoors; therefore, it is essential to ensure good indoor environmental quality (IEQ), ensuring healthy, comfortable and energy-efficient conditions. This paper proposes a methodology to develop an Indoor Environmental Quality Index for housing inhabited by elderly people, considering indoor environmental factors such as lighting (photopic and melanopic), acoustics, hygrothermal comfort and indoor air quality (temperature, relative humidity, CO2, volatile organic compounds), with the purpose of helping both users and building professionals and designers to identify possible deficiencies in the indoor environment, without compromising environmental quality in favour of energy efficiency. Based on the combined effect of these environmental indicators, the aim is to develop an index that reflects a dimensionless value of the quality of indoor environmental conditions during the period monitored and surveyed, in compliance with national and international technical standards, such as ASHRAE or UNE, as well as WHO recommendations. The application of the Indoor Environmental Quality Index in multi-family dwellings for elderly people will be validated in order to demonstrate its usefulness. This index is an indoor environmental quality metric that will provide a simple and concise assessment of the indoor environment for scientists, professionals and users of the dwellings. One of the main strengths of the index is its ability to appropriately weight the different indicators of indoor environment quality. The index is constructed through the normalization of monitored variables, weighted aggregation by environmental domain, and integration with subjective perception using a hybrid model of 70% to 30%. The calculations are based on actual monitoring and surveys developed specifically for multi-family residential buildings and are able to sufficiently inform both occupants and professionals about indoor environmental conditions. This study can help to avoid overshadowing other addressable indoor environmental problems. Furthermore, the proposal seeks to lay the groundwork for future research applied to other groups classified by vulnerability and/or age and other building typologies.