Economic, Environmental and Health Implications of Enhanced Ventilation in Office Buildings

Piers MacNaughton, James Pegues, Usha Satish, Suresh Santanam, John Spengler and Joseph Allen
Additional contact information
Piers MacNaughton: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Landmark 409 West, 401 Park Drive Boston, MA 02115, USA
James Pegues: United Technologies Climate, Controls & Security, Syracuse, NY 13221, USA
Usha Satish: Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY-Upstate Medical School, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
Suresh Santanam: Industrial Assessment Center, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
John Spengler: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Landmark 409 West, 401 Park Drive Boston, MA 02115, USA
Joseph Allen: Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Landmark 409 West, 401 Park Drive Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: Introduction: Current building ventilation standards are based on acceptable minimums. Three decades of research demonstrates the human health benefits of increased ventilation above these minimums. Recent research also shows the benefits on human decision-making performance in office workers, which translates to increased productivity. However, adoption of enhanced ventilation strategies is lagging. We sought to evaluate two of the perceived potential barriers to more widespread adoption—Economic and environmental costs. Methods: We estimated the energy consumption and associated per building occupant costs for office buildings in seven U.S. cities, representing different climate zones for three ventilation scenarios (standard practice (20 cfm/person), 30% enhanced ventilation, and 40 cfm/person) and four different heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system strategies (Variable Air Volume (VAV) with reheat and a Fan Coil Unit (FCU), both with and without an energy recovery ventilator). We also estimated emissions of greenhouse gases associated with this increased energy usage, and, for comparison, converted this to the equivalent number of vehicles using greenhouse gas equivalencies. Lastly, we paired results from our previous research on cognitive function and ventilation with labor statistics to estimate the economic benefit of increased productivity associated with increasing ventilation rates. Results: Doubling the ventilation rate from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers minimum cost less than $40 per person per year in all climate zones investigated. Using an energy recovery ventilation system significantly reduced energy costs, and in some scenarios led to a net savings. At the highest ventilation rate, adding an ERV essentially neutralized the environmental impact of enhanced ventilation (0.03 additional cars on the road per building across all cities). The same change in ventilation improved the performance of workers by 8%, equivalent to a $6500 increase in employee productivity each year. Reduced absenteeism and improved health are also seen with enhanced ventilation. Conclusions: The health benefits associated with enhanced ventilation rates far exceed the per-person energy costs relative to salary costs. Environmental impacts can be mitigated at regional, building, and individual-level scales through the transition to renewable energy sources, adoption of energy efficient systems and ventilation strategies, and promotion of other sustainable policies.

Keywords: green buildings; energy and environmental costs; health; productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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