Building emissions testing standards

Standardized Emission Testing This is probably the most frequent application of test chambers and cells, because indoor related materials and products need to be evaluated for the release of volatile chemicals in order to ensure a healthy indoor climate. Many procedures have been established for different types of products. A very well-known scheme was developed by the German Committee for Health-related Evaluation of Building Products (AgBB) for the evaluation of building... 

ISO (2006a) 16000-9. Indoor Air-Determination of the Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds from Building Products and Furnishing-Emission Test Chamber Method, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland. 

Test a hypothesis about the source of the problem, such as checking emissions from a piece of equipment. Testing for "indicator" compounds associated with particular types of building conditions Peak carbon dioxide CO2) concentrations over 1000 ppm (parts per million) are an indicator of underventilation. Carbon monoxide (CO) over several ppm indicates inappropriate presence of combustion by-products (which may also account for high CO2 readings). Compare any measured concentrations to guidelines or standards. 

Standardized Methods for Testing Emissions of Organic Vapors from Building Products to Indoor Air... 

Formaldehyde as a pollutant in the indoor air is usually connected with the use of formaldehyde based resins in e.g. building materials and in furniture. This article presents measurements of the formaldehyde emission from various products containing urea-formaldehyde (UF) or phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins. The emission from all test objects have been measured in a ventilated test chamber at the standardized testing atmosphere 23 C, 50 % RH according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The emission from woodbased panels and other materials have been measured at a loading factor of 1.0 m /m and at an air change rate of 1.0 h . ... 

In the future the Swedish formaldehyde rules may include other UF-bonded products as MDF-boards and the requirements also may be formulated as emission rates. On the behalf of the National Board of Physical Planning and Building, the Swedish National Testing Institute has performed a study on the emission from products bonded with formaldehyde based resin. The measurements have been performed in a ventilated test chamber at standardized climate in agreement within the work of the European Organization for Standardization, CEN. 16 West European countries are represented in CEN. 

In connection with the European Council Directive 89/106/EEC on construction products (EEC, 1989) the working group (WG) 7 of TC 264 air quality at the European standardizing organisation CEN defines general standards for environmental test chambers for the determination of VOC emissions from building products (prENV 13419-1,... 

As a member of the WG 7 the, author (Wensing, 1996) contributes to this standardization, for which important preparatory work has been published (Tichenor, 1989 ASTM 1990 Nordtest, 1990 EC, 1991 EC, 1993 EC, 1995). The future EN is going to require a certain quality standard of important parameters of a VOC emission examination of building products with environmental test chambers. Table 2.1-3 gives an overview. 

Suitable examinations have shown that emissions from building products strongly depend on the temperature (e.g. van der Wal, 1997). For the purposes of standardized examinations it is thus important to have the possibility to regulate the temperature inside the test chamber to, e.g., 23 °C, with a maximum variation of 1 K. This can be achieved by using the chamber inside an air-conditioned room (ambient air temperature = chamber air temperature), by controlling the temperature of the chamber walls or by installing a heating appliance inside the chamber. 

Gustafsson H. and Jonsson B. (1993) Trade standards for testing chemical emission from building materials, Part 1 Measurements of Flooring Materials. Proceedings of Indoor Air 93, Helsinki, Finland, Vol.2, 437-442. 

Fig. 4.19 Two-roomed construction for testing smoke emission. Installed by the Hungarian Institute of Quality Control of Building according to the Hungarian Standard MSZ 14 800/10-86 ] searchlight source 2 fan 3 combustion furnace 4 photometer 5 marks for recognition ...

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