Constanza Molina

Constanza Molina
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile | UC · Escuela de Construcción Civil

PhD

About

40
Publications
6,571
Reads
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142
Citations
Introduction
I’m an academic at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, School of Civil Construction. My research interests are in interdisciplinary studies linking indoor pollution and building design with occupants' behaviour and occupants' health.
Additional affiliations
April 2020 - present
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
October 2015 - present
University of Nottingham
Position
  • PhD Student
January 2012 - September 2015
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Position
  • Lecturer

Publications

Publications (40)
Preprint
Full-text available
Building stock energy modeling (BSEM) has become an essential tool for policymakers aiming to achieve carbon-neutral built heritage and adapt to climate change. This study proposes a parameterized energy model developed using Rhino/Grasshopper/Ladybug software to create a BSEM set that accurately represents the current Chilean single-family housing...
Article
Full-text available
This study presents a health-centered approach to quantify and compare the chronic harm caused by indoor air contaminants using disability-adjusted life-year (DALY). The aim is to understand the chronic harm caused by airborne contaminants in dwellings and identify the most harmful. Epidemiological and toxicological evidence of population morbidity...
Article
Highlights • Aim to measure uncertainty in PM2.5 emission rates for use in exposure modelling. • PM2.5 emission rates obtained from bread toasting as simple and repeatable source. • Chamber tests produce more consistent emission rates and reduce variance 10-fold. • Theoretical peak method accommodates gradual mixing and generates mean emission rate...
Article
Highlights •Energy poverty (EP) is analyzed in a developing country's social housing complex using a micro-scale approach. •The EP analysis covered various quantitative and qualitative variables from existing literature. •Unaffordability, low energy-efficiency homes, and reliance on firewood were uncovered as root causes of EP. •Retrofitting homes...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The predicted and measured carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by human respiration into an occupied space has been used as an indicator for controlling buildings' ventilation rates. However, this application assumes a constant emission rate for the entire population. Conversely, new knowledge has shown that this variable depends on the number of people i...
Chapter
The air people breathe has a significant impact on their health, comfort, productivity, and well-being. Indoor air is important because it is where most exposure to airborne contaminants occurs. However, it is not always possible to know the composition of contaminants in indoor air, its variability, and changes over time, so suitable metrics are n...
Conference Paper
This paper used the Disability Adjusted Life Year to quantify and rank the harm from exposure to airborne contaminants in dwellings. The main results from this work identified PM2.5 as the most harmful contaminant, followed by coarse particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and formaldehyde. For this reason, they are now designated as Contamina...
Article
Note. For the most updated version, please see: Harm from Residential Indoor Air Contaminants December 2023Environmental Science and Technology 58(3) DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c07374 -- Abstract. This paper proposes a new approach to assess indoor air quality (IAQ) that is based on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). DALYs are a valuable metric for...
Presentation
Full-text available
Common metrics for assessing air quality in buildings are based on guidelines and standards that regulate concentrations by stating threshold concentrations that should not be exceeded over a period of time. There is disagreement on the magnitude of these thresholds, perhaps because methods for determining them do not relate the magnitude of any ex...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Over the last few decades, concerns regarding air quality within buildings have increased, particularly in Europe and the United States. Although it is possible to know the ventilation rate by design, the actual values (during the occupation) usually remain unknown. We measured CO2 concentrations in 40 occupied rooms of three types of buildings (re...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Emissions from cooking have been estimated to contribute to two-thirds of total fine particulate matter (particles with diameter ≤ 2.5μm, PM2.5) pollution in homes, so assessing PM2.5 emissions from cooking complete meals is a growing need of research. Furthermore, indoor exposure to PM2.5 has been associated with an increased risk of adverse healt...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Energy modeling of the existing building stock as a decision-making tool for governments is necessary for drafting national roadmaps to the carbon neutrality of the built heritage. A set of 297 building energy models is stochastically generated using architectural archetypes and national information. The energy models are created and simulated in b...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
1. ABSTRACT Common metrics used for assessing air quality are based on guidelines and/or standards for regulating concentrations that should not be exceeded over a period. Exceeding those values would represent problematic situations. A lack of agreement on appropriate norms or standards deem this approach sub-optimal. Moreover, this approach does...
Data
This compressed file is a dataset of 1130 building energy models in .idf format (EnergyPlus files) representative of the Chilean single-family building stock. The models were parametrically generated in Rhino6/Grasshopper software using Ladybug Tools plugin. Various national datasets (Census, national energy survey and energy label) and the archety...
Article
Full-text available
Between June 2018 and April 2019, a sampling campaign was carried out to collect PM 2.5 , monitoring meteorological parameters and anthropogenic events in the Sartenejas Valley, Venezuela. We develop a logistic model for PM 2.5 exceedances (≥ 12.5 µg m ⁻³ ). Source appointment was done using elemental composition and morphology of PM by scanning el...
Chapter
The occupants of all buildings have a right to healthy indoor air. Yet the air in buildings can contain a range of contaminants that adversely affect the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, nervous, and respiratory systems of the human body. Exposure lowers physical and mental health, wellbeing, and productivity with social, political, and economic...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Esta investigación tuvo por objetivo desarrollar un modelo analítico para comprender el riesgo de contagio por aerosoles contaminados con partículas del virus SARS-CoV-2, en diferentes ambientes de trabajo. Este modelo incorpora tanto las propiedades físicas y arquitectónicas de los edificios como las características fisiológicas de los trabajadore...
Preprint
Full-text available
HEADING The steady-state concentration of occupant generated carbon dioxide (CO2) is used in some applications as an indicator of compliance with a required ventilation rate. These applications assume that the CO2 is at a uniform concentration in the space being considered, and that the outdoor concentration, ventilation rate, and CO2 emission rate...
Article
The housing stock of Chile is responsible for 15% of its total final energy consumption and so its Government is regulating the construction of dwellings. However, there is a need to establish models to help governments determine sensible guidance. This paper presents the Chilean Housing Archetypes AiR quality Model (CHAARM) and a stochastic framew...
Code
R code to accompany paper: "CHAARM: A model to predict uncertainties in indoor pollutant concentrations, ventilation and infiltration rates, and associated energy demand in Chilean houses" Copyright 2019 Constanza Molina Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance wit...
Article
Chile is a South American country experiencing greater social and economic development than the majority of its neighbours and whose economy is transitioning from developing to developed status. It is committed to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 35-45% by 2030, requiring national energy demand reduction. Chile's housing stock is respon...
Thesis
Full-text available
This work contributes to knowledge by (i) characterising the Chilean housing stock and presenting a set of archetypal buildings to represent it; (ii) presenting a model and modelling framework for evaluating the Chilean housing stock probabilistically; (iii) predicting uncertainties in occupant exposures to PM2.5, and dwelling ventilation rates and...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
People spend the majority of their time in their own homes and so the indoor environmental conditions are an important determinant of population health and wellbeing and have economic consequences. Chile is undergoing rapid economic growth and is managing its national energy demand to minimize its greenhouse gas emissions. Its housing stock is grow...
Code
R code to accompany paper: "A Data Analysis of the Chilean Housing Stock and the Development of Modelling Archetypes" Copyright 2019 Constanza Molina Licensed under the Educational Community License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.ose...
Data
This database uses a range of Chilean data sources, such as censuses and building permits, to inform about archetypal Chilean houses with statistically significant representative values for design parameters related to energy demand and indoor air quality. These archetypes can be used to predict and evaluate the impacts of policies on indoor air qu...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Particulate matter with a diameter of ≤2.5µm (PM2.5) has been shown to be present in many buildings at concentrations that are harmful to human health. Accordingly, they should be used as metrics of indoor air quality (IAQ) and included in standards or norms. This paper uses measurements of PM2.5 concentrations made in three different environments...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
As policy makers strive to reduce the energy demands of houses by reducing infiltration rates, an unintended consequence could be a fall in the quality of indoor air with corresponding negative health effects at a population scale. Measuring pollutant concentrations in-situ is difficult, expensive, invasive, and time consuming and so the simulation...
Chapter
The occupants of all buildings have a right to healthy indoor air. However the air in buildings can contain a range of pollutants that adversely affect the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, nervous, and respiratory systems of the human body. Exposure lowers physical and mental health, well-being, and productivity with social, political, and econom...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper describes a method to identify sets of archetypes that are statistically representative of the Chilean housing stock.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort in public and residential buildings is relevant when in operation. However, to date it is not regulated nor subject to control in Chile, despite the consequences of a poor IAQ due to high concentrations of CO2 on learning, concentration, productivity and health. At a first stage, the IAQ of 2 classro...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort in public buildings and residential is relevant when their rooms are in use. However, to date it is not regulated nor controlled in Chile, despite the consequences of poor IAQ due to high concentrations of CO2 on learning, concentration, productivity and health. Satisfaction polls were conducted betw...
Article
Full-text available
Environmental comfort in working space is an essential component in any architectural project and takes more strength every day, but little is known about. Environmental variables were measured and surveyed satisfaction of 10 public buildings in use throughout Chile obtaining the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPI), predicted mean vote (PMV)...
Article
Environmental comfort in working space is an essential component in any architectural project and takes more strength every day, but little is known about. Environmental variables were measured and surveyed satisfaction of 10 public buildings in use throughout Chile obtaining the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPI), predicted mean vote (PMV)...
Book
Full-text available
Este Manual se enmarca en el Proyecto Innova Chile Corfo 09CN14-5706, que lleva por título: "Evaluación de estrategias de diseño constructivo y de estándares de calidad ambiental y uso eficiente de energía en edificaciones públicas, mediante monitorización de edificios construidos" desarrollado por el Instituto de la Construcción.
Data
Indoor and outdoor data from real-time sensors of CO2 concentrations, temperature (air and wall surface) and relative humidity, of the project´s monitoring campaign.
Raw Data
Indoor and outdoor real-time sensors data for two school classrooms. It includes air and wall surface temperature, CO2 concentrations, and relative humidity data of the winter and summer monitoring campaigns.

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