Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of improving building indoor air quality to reduce occupants’ chances of contracting airborne illness. The ASHRAE Epidemic Task Force (ASHRAE-ETF) released several COVID-19 mitigation strategies at the onset of the pandemic. This study explores four of those recommendations for reducing transmission of COVID-19 inside buildings: (1) 100% outdoor air ventilation, (2) MERV-13 or better filters, (3) demand control ventilation removal, and (4) HVAC flushing mode. These recommendations were simulated and assessed using ComStock, a model of the U.S. commercial building stock. The study showed the 100% outdoor air ventilation recommendation had the largest impact on energy consumption, noncoincident peak demand, and thermostat violations. Removing demand control ventilation had the smallest national aggregate impact, installing MERV-13 filters led to slight increases in energy use and peak demand, and HVAC outdoor air flushing led to modest energy use and peak demand increases.
Original language | American English |
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Number of pages | 12 |
State | Published - 2022 |
Event | 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE 2022) - Montreal, Canada Duration: 25 Jul 2022 → 29 Jul 2022 |
Conference
Conference | 5th International Conference on Building Energy and Environment (COBEE 2022) |
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City | Montreal, Canada |
Period | 25/07/22 → 29/07/22 |
Bibliographical note
See NREL/CP-5500-87850 for paper as published in proceedingsNREL Publication Number
- NREL/CP-5500-82515
Keywords
- building energy modelling
- building stock modeling
- commercial building stock modelling
- ComStock
- COVID-19 HVAC strategies
- COVID-19 pandemic