[Greenbuilding] Stale Air

[JOHN SALMEN]

Hi,

 

There are a lot of adjectives for air - stale, stagnant, dead, fetid.

Air basically means for us oxygen as a requirement - so stale air could
simply be oxygen poor air.

.

With ashrae I guess there is adequate ventilation and inadequate ventilation
and stale would be an excess of unventilated air (stale??). Ashrae uses co2
concentrations as the indicator for adequate ventilation so there definition
is ppm for various uses.

 

In emergency first aid I measure ventilation rates,  blood oxygen levels as
well of level of consciousness - all of which could reveal an emergency
condition in students in a classroom at the end of a day subject to averaged
ventilation and subsequent 'stale' air. Tidal volume (breath) is about 500ml
with about 14% oxygen and 4.4% co2 exhaled - outside air is about 21% oxygen
and .04% co2. 

 

So a significant amount of c02 is released on each breath in comparison to
the intake - so we could say that 'stale air' is any air exhaled.

 

Fun question.

John

 

 

JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

4465 UPHILL RD,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7

PH 250 748 7672 FAX 250 748 7612 CELL 250 246 8541

terrain at shaw.ca

 

  _____  

From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Stephen
Collette
Sent: December 11, 2010 1:20 PM
To: Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Greenbuilding] Stale Air

 

Howdy folks

 

So I was thinking to myself about building science things and such and I was
wondering if there is such a thing as a definition of "stale air". We use
the idea a lot with respect to HRV's and ERV's and comfort, but I was
wondering if there is such a thing as an actual definition. I haven't dipped
into the ASHRAE fundamentals books yet, which I have, but thought I would
pose the question to all for some general head scratching and BSing. 

 

Thanks.

 

Stephen

 

Stephen Collette BBEC, LEED AP, BSSO

Your Healthy House - Indoor Environmental Testing & Building Consulting

http://www.yourhealthyhouse.ca

stephen at yourhealthyhouse.ca

705.652.5159

 





 

 

 





 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20101212/b02426d3/attachment.html>