Air Intake Location Protects Indoor Air Quality
February 15, 2012
Properly locate outdoor air intakes. In the design of a new building, the placement of each outdoor system component should be studied to ensure it is located properly in relation to the other elements. This prevents the building from routinely contaminating itself.
For example, boiler stacks should be high enough above the building and far enough away from air intakes so that flue gases are released into an air stream that remains undisturbed by the building and any surrounding conditions, such as other buildings, hills or tree lines.
Similar care should be taken in considering the location of cooling towers and other sources of contamination generated from the building and its surrounding site.
In the case of a building that exhausts toxic gases, such as a laboratory building with fume hoods, the system design is critical. It may be prudent to construct a model to estimate contamination levels and develop the proper configuration of equipment.
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