GIC Green Indoor Air Quality Calculator Proposal

GBE > Projects > Calculators > G#43961

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GIAQC Green Indoor Air Quality Calculator (Proposal)

Context:

After 50 years in construction as a technician, architect, consultant specification writer on £2420m worth of projects, as an environmental specification consultant and in Architectural Education; BrianSpecMan Murphy has become very conscious of the knowledge gaps that exist within students, graduates, professionals and construction industry wide.

GBE Green Building Encyclopaedia, GBL Green Building Learning & GBC Green Building Calculator websites have been, are creating or planning several Design & Decision Tools (D&DT), Jargon Busters, CPD seminars and Lectures, Brain Dumps, Checklists, Issue papers, Guest Articles, etc. to try to address some of those knowledge gaps:

GBC Design & Decision tools and Carbon Calculators being developed include:

WCL Waste Cost lite (after UK PII Funded project, complete, being replaced by GWCC)
WBECC Whole Building Embodied Carbon Calculator (University student assignments, superseded by GBC)
WBIUCC Whole Building In Use Carbon Calculator (University student assignments, superseded by GBC)
GBC Green Building Calculator (During COVID, Version 2 launched, Version 3 developing)
GRC Green Retrofit Calculator (with STBA, 99% complete)
GIRC Green Insurance Repair Calculator (with Core Logic, Demonstration)
GFC Green Flooring Calculator (with Gyvlon, Started)
GIG Green Interiors Calculator (with HiiGuru, Proposal and grant application, no progress)
GRRC Green Reclaim & Reuse Calculator (With Salvo UK, Proposal)
GGC Green Glazing Calculator (With VacuumGlas, Substantially complete)
GWCC Green Waste Cost Calculator (with VacuumGlas, Version 1 complete)
GTEC Green Transport Emissions Calculator (with VacuumGlas, Substantially complete)
GTWC Green Temporary Works Calculator (with VacuumGlas, V1 Complete)
GHC Green Historic Calculator (with STBA & CALECHE project, Current development)
GMEPC Green Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Calculator (with Home@ix, Started)
GMMC Green Modern Methods Calculator (Proposal)
GUVC Green U Value Calculator (Proposal & Feasibility underway)
GWRRC Green Water Reduce & Recycle Calculator (Discussion starting in February 2026)

Ambition and progress:

GBC has so far focussed on Embodied Energy & Carbon, Sequestered Carbon & LCA Life Cycle Assessment & EPD Environmental Product Declaration calculations and Bill of Quantities addressing costs.
GBC has for a while also wanted to address EW Embodied Water and ECh Embodied Chemistry and human health.
At exhibitions GBC’S BrianSpecMan Murphy continued to ask material & product manufacturers, IAQ Indoor Air Qualitytest kit manufacturers and consultants if we can yet find a correlation between surrounding room surfaces, material’s chemical content and indoor air quality, so far, the answers have been firm nos.
GIC was an opportunity to address these issues, but the AI Artificial Intelligence focussed GUI Graphic User Interface, UX User Experience soaked up all the money, so no progress there.
CALECHE Coherent, Acceptable, Low Emissions, Cultural, Heritage, Efficient, Renovation project developing tools for Historic Domestic & Non-domestic Public Building Renovation
CALECHE addressing IAQ Indoor Air Quality with Greek and Swedish team member’s expert advice.
The same Swedish team are also starting an IAQ funded project aiming to solve BrianSpecMan’s exhibition question.

Method Statement of Approach:

Under Greek advice we got back to Mechanical Ventilation basics

Identifying and recording: (Substantially complete)

Local outdoor air monitoring stations and choosing closest to the building in question
Capturing data outputs from the monitoring station
Identify external pollution sources, pollution types, distance, direction
- Rail lines, road routes, traffic lights, airports, industrial, marine, harbours
Further considerations: short term and temporary pollutants: (not normally considered, so far)
- Construction chemistry off gassing and products of combustion
- Agriculture chemicals and pollen
- Restaurant Kitchen extraction
- Ventilation outlets: Thermal pollution, moisture vapour, smells
Determine if there is a pattern in the timings to pollution instances: examples:
- Food Kitchen hours of operation
- Seasonal crop spraying
- Construction Site working hours
Appropriate response:
- Avoid air intake during these instances if practical
- Filtration to match pollution instances
Monitoring equipment is being promoted
- It can be selected according to any known pollutants
An output is guidance to the designers and specifiers of ventilation systems:
- Avoid drawing in external air at the time of known recurring external pollution incidences
Building’s ventilation systems: intake, filtration methods, distribution, outlets and rooms served
Internal pollution sources:
- Off gassing from: (Data collection pending)
  - Core, surface finishes, protection, adhesives
  - Modern (1957? Onwards high chemistry) furniture, upholstery (IDD advisor identified)
  - Cleaning materials
- Pollution generators:
  - Fireplaces, kitchen, cookers, bathrooms, laundry, etc.
- Pollution Generated:
  - Mould spores, smoke, particulates, smells, VOC, CO2, heat, humidity, etc.
- Toxic smoke from materials in fires
  - Example: PVC in fires generates dioxins (as do plastics in fireworks)
  - Most plastics generate toxic smoke in fires
  - Upholstery materials have substantial % of plastics
  - Smoke is usually the killer in fires
  - Smoke inhalation by fire fighters can be lethal many hours after the call out is over

Following Swedish advice: investigate the surface materials

Continuing GBC approach looking at building fabric: and exploring the ingredients: (Substantially developed)

Considering:
- Core materials and their distance from surface
- Surface materials
- Decoration, corrosion, fire chemical protection materials
- Impregnations, rot and fire treatments, coatings, oils, waxes
- Cleaning and maintenance materials:
  - frequency of application, application rates, concentration levels
- Considering air and moisture vapour permeability of core, surface, impregnation and decoration materials
- Considering moisture transport from core to surface and direction of flow driven by hygrothermal pressure
- Consider evaporation or off gassing driven by heat
- Considering blowing agents from petrochemical plastics escaping from surfaces
- Considering multiple glass insulating gasses escaping from units
- Quantifying surface areas around spaces
- With heights calculating volumes of spaces
- Thickness and volumes of core, surface, impregnation and decoration materials
- Determining core and finish material recipes used to determine chemistry contents
- Calculating chemistry quantity available to affect IAQ
- Considering the interactions of ingredients with each other generating more unhealthy materials
- Not forgetting maintenance activities: (Pending)
  - Abrasive sanding of surfaces can release micro particles (particulates) to atmosphere
    - Sanding paint contributes to largest % of microplastics that are everywhere
  - Drilling to add fixtures can also release micro particles
  - Once released to atmosphere they risk entering the breathing tracts of any persons present
  - Cleaning particles from floor should avoid flicking brushes but use vacuum suction
  - Competent safe legal disposal of collected particles is essential
- Not ignoring site pollutants: (Pending)
  - From prior, current and future use
  - Airborne particulates pollutants landing on site
  - Rainwater delivered pollutants absorbed into site

Cataloguing ingredient chemistry, materials and products that have potential to affect IAQ: (only >125 so far)

Base on prior knowledge
Adding recent industry priorities
Adding current campaign targets
Internet searches including with AI (with caution, substantially developed, but many more to capture)
Include: Synthetic and natural solvents (e.g. plant-based oils and paints)
Looking to Health & Safety legislation
- CHIP, COSHH,
- REACH, Candidate List, SIN Substitute it Now List, LBC Red List,
- Capturing links to data sources for users to investigate
- Consider future APIs to auto update from data sources into calculator cells
Other guidance:
- WHO World Health Organisation, EU European Union and National regulations, many others
- Green labels, excluded materials
- Red List (>15,000 materials) below

Capture data about chemistry and material ingredients (Pending)

From:
- Generic Material’s MSDS Material Safety Data Sheets
- Manufacturer’s Product MSDS Material Safety Data Sheets
- Manufacturer’s REACH declarations
- Manufacturer’s literature
- Maintenance & cleaning MSDS materials safety data sheets
Material names, chemical symbol or other shorthand, initials, acronyms (Substantially developed)
Collate Product information: Manufacturers and Product references
- Unhealthy materials
  - Red Lists (see above example)
  - REACH lists,
  - Candidate list,
  - SIN Substitute it Now list,
  - SVHCs Substances of Very High Concern lists
- Alternative healthy materials to substitute
  - Competent, Green & Health Labelled materials E.g. natureplus
  - Declare healthy database
  - Low Allergy database (UK) includes maintenance equipment
  - Quiet Mark database (UK)
  - REACH’s Substitute it Now lists
  - REACH’s SubsPort Substitution Portal
- Information collected for:
  - Design & Decision Tool
  - Calculator
  - Robust specifications clauses for products, for contracts
    - to resist substitution for unhealthy
    - to include properties (reason for choosing it and defending it in substitution scenarios)
  - Map Ingredients, Materials, Products to applications
    - Materials to Applications (CALECHE Generic Solutions)
    - Products to Applications (CALECHE Solutions Repository)
    - Map applications to Building elements, their build ups and components (to be developed)
    - Map materials to applications (started)
  - Collate Tell-tale signs of material presence: (started, limited data available)
    - Colours
    - Off gassing
    - Polymer migration affecting adjacent materials, adhesive failure, discolouration, etc.
  - Determine significant dates: (Substantially developed)
    - when materials were introduced (if knowable)
    - when materials were identified as a risk
    - when materials awareness and rejection by consumers
    - when materials were limited, restricted: nationally or globally
    - when materials were banned
    - when materials were required to be removed
  - Which directives, legislations, regulations, labels initiated the changes (Substantially developed)
    - Which organisations or consumers
    - Which countries
    - Which publications, databases or websites
  - Any obligations and financial grants for removal (no progress)
  - Which test kits are available in retailers (started)
  - Create Hazardous Materials Chronology (Substantially Developed)
    - Map material significant dates
    - Create charts to graphically show the start, change and stop dates (refinements progressing)
    - Show which materials were being used in which materials and application