Indoor Air Quality Assessment Based on Human Physiology - Part 1. New Criteria Proposal

Abstract

Human physiology research makes evident that the Weber-Fechner law applies not only to noise perception but also to the perception of other environmental components. Based on this fact, new decibel units for dor component representing indoor air quality in majority locations have been proposed: decicarbdiox dCd (for carbon dioxide CO₂) and decitvoc dTv (for total volatile organic compound TVOC). Equations of these new units have been proved by application of a) experimental relationships between odor intensity (representing odor perception by the human body) and odor concentrations of CO₂ and TVOC, b) individually  measured CO₂ and TVOC levels (concentrations) – from these new decibel units can be calculated and their values compared with decibel units of noise measured in the same locations. The undoubted benefit of using the decibel scale is that it gives much better approximation to human perception of odor intensity compared to the CO₂ and TVOC concentration scales.