Toward Sustainable Indoor Environments: Assessing the Impact of Thermal Insulation Measures on Air Quality in Buildings—A Case Study in Temuco, Chile

Aner Martinez-Soto, Carlos Jimenez-Gallardo (), Andrés Villarroel-Lopez, Alejandro Reyes-Riveros and Johanna Höhl
Additional contact information
Aner Martinez-Soto: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile
Carlos Jimenez-Gallardo: Department of Mathematic and Statistic, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile
Andrés Villarroel-Lopez: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile
Alejandro Reyes-Riveros: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco 4811230, Chile
Johanna Höhl: Institute of Geography, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: In Chile, an Atmospheric Decontamination Plan (PDA) has been developed to reduce concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in cities deemed “saturated” with these particles. The plan includes various measures, such as the thermal insulation of homes and the replacement of heaters. This study presents an analysis of the indices of four indoor air quality variables (temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and PM 2.5) in different types of homes with varying levels of PDA implementation in the city of Temuco, Chile. Regarding the temperature variable, only one type of home was found to be within comfort limits, with an average of 20.6 °C and a variation of ±3.52 °C (SD). Concerning humidity, independently owned homes with complete and moderate ADP implementation had average humidity levels between 64.82% ± 7.19% and 55.6% ± 6.11%, respectively. For CO 2 , only homes with moderate implementation showed averages slightly below (average 991 ppm) the maximum allowed (1000 ppm). As for PM 2.5, all homes exceeded the standard, ranging from 44.4 µg/m 3 to 130 µg/m 3 , with very high variations. This demonstrates that PM 2.5 concentrations consistently exceeded the limits established by the World Health Organization (15 µg/m 3 ).

Keywords: indoor air quality; environmental quality; refurbishments housing politics; life quality; sustainable building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/547/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/547/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:547-:d:1315368

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().