Heating, ventilating and air conditioning system and environmental control for wellbeing

This special issue, ‘Building Environmental Control for the Wellbeing of Occupants’ was initiated in response to the increasing demand for a better environmental control for the wellbeing of occupants, and in consideration of the government policy and the introduction of Chinese standards on ventilation for environmental control of indoor environments, which have been reviewed. The environmental control for the wellbeing of occupants is especially needed in consideration of the performance criteria for passive near-zero energy buildings required in China, and the Chinese standard GB/T 50668-2011, on ‘Indoor Environmental Quality for Assessment of Energy-efficient Buildings’. This special issue is derived from papers selected from the 11th International Symposium on Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning held on 12–15 July 2019 in Harbin, China. The selected papers were modified and extended and then peer reviewed for presentation as journal papers for the special issue. Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are of great importance to improve indoor environment quality (e.g. indoor air quality, thermal comfort, etc.). However, it may cause significant energy consumption, accounting for more than 50% of the total building energy consumption, especially for public/non-residential buildings. Moreover, considering the dynamic and non-uniform distribution characteristics of indoor environment parameters, e.g. pollutant concentration, temperature and humidity, HVAC systems may not satisfy the actual demand of the environment requirement. Thus, there is a need to develop correlated HVAC control strategies and techniques based on the perspective of indoor environment, health and wellbeing of occupants as well as energy efficiency. This is also the main goal of this special issue, i.e. new technologies for environmental control for the wellbeing of occupants. Technologies such as ground source heat pump, uncertainty-based robust control for HVAC systems, dehumidification systems, heat storage as well as ventilation design for underground space environments, etc. are considered. The following parameters that pose a demand on HVAC systems should be included: Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation systems. Air pollution could have many adverse effects on human health. The behaviour of indoor air pollutants emissions is of great importance to regulate air quality and assess health risks, such as fine and ultrafine particular matters (PM10 and PM2.5), 9 formaldehyde, VOCs, airborne fungi, nitrogen oxides (NOx), 14 ozone (O3) 15 and radon. Also carbon dioxide (CO2) 18,19 concentration should be included for consideration as this has a significant relationship with ventilation efficiency, occupants’ respiratory index related to tiredness and sick building syndrome symptoms. Besides, indoor environment could be influenced by outdoor pollution. High indoor PM concentrations were found to be highly influenced by outdoor levels. Building ventilation is an effective method to remove pollutants and dilute stable air. Natural ventilation through window openings could remove around 23% of indoor formaldehyde. However, ventilation air is a source of indoor PM2.5. Air filtration technology with good filtration performance and antibacterial function has been widely developed to reduce indoor contamination. Air curtain systems have been