Background concentration of indoor air quality in hostel rooms during varying conditions

Abstract

The indoor air pollutants in student hostel room during eight different conditions were evaluated.One minute interval of TVOC, CO2, CO, O3 concentrations, temperature and relative humidity weremeasured inside a vacant hostel room of Universiti Sains Malaysia. Four fan speeds of 0, 1, 3 and5 and the installed window being open and close were selected as the basis to determine thecondition inside the hostel room. Result suggested that the concentrations of indoor air pollutantswere below the maximum permissible values outlined by Industrial Code of Practice on Indoor AirPollutants except for O3, with maximum concentration are 576 ppb (TVOC), 666 ppm (CO2), 4.4ppm (CO) and 90 ppb (O3). The hourly trend of TVOC and CO2 concentrations with peakconcentrations were observed in the morning (8 a.m.) due to outdoor traffic emission which greatlyinfluenced the indoor pollutants variation. Meanwhile, O3 showed some delay in time to reach peakconcentrations that were observed at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Result indicate that the conditions set upwere incapable in the regulation of indoor pollutants variation since these pollutants are moredependent with the source of emission and destruction factors.