Indoor Air Quality Diagnosis Tool for residential buildings. Technical and methodology approaches

IAQ is an open issue, evolving with technological innovations and building performance require- ments, and emerges with the need to contain the energy consumption of buildings. Reducing heat losses by controlling air circulation, adding chemical-based insulation panels, and replacing heat- ing and air conditioning systems may cause a decrease in IAQ. Indeed, the recent technical and economic efforts to improve the energy performance of residential buildings require a reflection on the indoor environmental quality. The contribution presents an IAQ Diagnostic Toolkit to quantitatively and qualitatively identify the presence of pollutants, visible signs and perceived clinical symptoms within the domestic en- vironment, suggesting spatial, technological, material and design solutions to address the issues. IAQ is diagnosed according to the conditions of the environmental and technological subsys- tems of the building, considering three main factors. Environmental context, exposure, solar ra- diation, proximity to large-scale polluting sources (industries, roads, etc.), urban morphology. Building features, construction technologies and materials, state of maintenance, collective sys- tems. Dwelling and occupants, assessing IAQ according to air recirculation, heating and cooling systems, the presence of pollutant sources, the activities of the occupants and their symptoms. Qualitative surveys are based on observation, photographic documentation, and interviews with residents. The health conditions of the building and the occupants are analysed according to the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). The contribution aims to present a user-friendly tool for moni- toring and controlling IAQ that not necessarily requires IoT.