D. Mumovic

University College London | UCL · Bartlett School of Environment Energy and Resources

This work assessed the potential impact on mortality and life expectancy that would occur due to reductions of indoor PM2.5 in dwellings in the UK using portable air purifiers. Reductions in indoor PM2.5 concentrations from air purifier use were modelled using findings from the literature for mean air purifier efficiency, mean indoor PM2.5 concentr...

Aims Poor indoor air quality can have detrimental impacts on the learning performance and health of schoolchildren. Climate change legislation will require dramatic increases in the energy efficiency of school buildings across the UK by 2050, which has the potential to affect air quality in schools. The aim of this study was to quantify the impact...

Meeting indoor environment quality (IEQ) standards, incorporating air quality and thermal comfort, is critical for children’s health and learning within classrooms. While building simulation provides indicative IEQ outputs, educational and construction stakeholders may require broader criteria, such as attainment, health and healthcare costs, to as...

Existing buildings constitute a large portion of the UK’s housing stock. Refurbishment of existing buildings can, therefore, have an important role in achieving the UK government’s CO2 reduction targets. While building regulations and rating frameworks mainly focus on the improvements of the operational performance of buildings, Life Cycle Analysis...

Indoor exposure to PM 2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) has a substantial negative impact on people’s health. However, indoor PM 2.5 can be controlled through effective ventilation and filtration. This study aimed to develop a smart control framework that (1) combines a portable home air purifier (HAP) and window c...

While building stock modelling has been used previously to investigate the space heating demand implications of national energy efficiency retrofitting, there are also implications for indoor overheating and air quality, particularly in schools, with highly intermittent occupancy patterns. This paper assesses indoor overheating risk and air quality...

The environmental performance of existing buildings can have a major role in achieving significant reductions in CO2 emissions: In the UK, around 75% 2050's housing stock has already been built. While building performance improvement efforts mostly focus on operational performance, buildings environmental impact is the result of processes that occu...

Impairment in mental functions attributed to the effects of indoor air quality and thermal conditions has received considerable attention in the past decade, particularly for educational buildings where students’ cognitive performance is essential to foster learning. This study explores the combined effects of indoor temperatures and CO_{2} levels...

Long term, continuous indoor and outdoor pollutant monitoring was evaluated from a case study hospital, school, office and 18 apartments in the UK. Data was examined in order to explore the dynamic behaviour of indoor-outdoor ratios (I/O) for both particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. Traditionally I/O ratios have been determined as single aggre...

Occupants' window operations can exert a substantial influence on the indoor environment. Although many researchers have studied the relationship between this adaptive behaviour and various types of environmental variables, certain types of pollutants such as indoor particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) remain poorly investig...

The recent commitment towards a net-zero target by 2050 will require considerable improvement to the UK’s building stock. Accounting for over 10% of the services energy consumption of the United Kingdom, the education sector will play an important role. This study aims to improve the understanding of English primary and secondary schools, using nat...

The UK Government has recently committed to achieve net zero carbon status by year 2050. Schools are responsible for around 2% of the UK’s total energy consumption, and around 15% of the UK public sector’s carbon emissions. A detailed analysis of the English school building stock’s performance can help policymakers improve its energy efficiency and...

Children spend a large part of their waking lives in school buildings. There is substantial evidence that poor indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal discomfort can have detrimental impacts on the performance, wellbeing and health of schoolchildren and staff. Maintaining good IAQ while avoiding overheating in classrooms is challenging due to the uniq...

One of the most widely available technologies to clean the air in homes of particulate matter of less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5), known to have negative health impacts, are portable home air purifiers (HAPs). This paper presents research which (1) explored the effectiveness of HAPs in real-world conditions in 57 homes in three European cities;...

This paper examines the potential for PV to improve the performance of primary schools in London. Disaggregate data including energy use is compared with modelled PV generation, showing that electricity demand could theoretically be met in 59% of the schools investigated. The impact of several key factors is then considered, including architectural...

Children spend a large part of their waking lives in school buildings. There is substantial evidence that poor indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal discomfort can have detrimental impacts on the performance, wellbeing and health of schoolchildren and staff. Maintaining good IAQ while avoiding overheating in classrooms is challenging due to the uniq...

Previous studies found 1,2-dichloropropane (1,2-DCP) emitted from spray foam insulation (SPF) products and it was hypothesised that 1,2-DCP is emitted from cured SPF due to thermal degradation of flame retardants. This study experimentally tested this hypothesis using qualitative and quantitative gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) of 1,2-...

As operations of windows by occupants can greatly affect building energy consumption and indoor air quality, understanding the driving factors of this adaptive control behaviour is of great importance. The present paper reports on an investigation into the influencing factors for window operation behaviour in eighteen newly-built, low-energy apartm...

The auto-generation of UK school building stock models could facilitate non-domestic carbon emissions tracking. However, contextual fabric and building service data are required to differentiate between asset or operational performance, and these may only be available in situ from building users. Engaging such groups through proposed data crowdsour...

The school building sector has a pivotal role to play in the transition to a low carbon UK economy. School buildings are responsible for 15% of the country’s public sector carbon emissions, with space heating currently making up the largest proportion of energy use and associated costs in schools. Children spend a large part of their waking life in...

The indoor air quality (IAQ) of five low-energy London apartments has been assessed through the measurement of 16 key pollutants, using continuous and diffusive methods across heating and non-heating seasons. This case study approach aimed to assess the presence of pollutants within low-energy apartments and to better understand the role of ventila...

The following literature review sets out the state-of-the-art research relating to smart building principles and smart energy systems in UK higher education university campuses. The paper begins by discussing the carbon impact of the sector and the concept of ‘smart campuses' applied to the sector in the context of decarbonisation. Opportunities an...

The Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in new patterns of home occupancy, the implications of which for indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy use are not well-known. In this context, the present study investigates 8 flats in London to uncover if during a lockdown, (a) IAQ in the monitored flats deteriorated, (b) the patterns of window operation by occupa...

Energy use in buildings accounts for one-third of the overall global energy consumption and total building floor area continues to increase each year as new developments are constructed and delivered. If stringent climate goals are to be met, these buildings will need to consume less energy and emit less carbon. However, design intentions for energ...

To manage the concerns regarding the energy performance gap in buildings, a structured and longitudinal performance assessment of buildings, covering design through to operation, is necessary. Modelling can form an integral part of this process by ensuring that a good practice design stage modelling is followed by an ongoing evaluation of operation...

Considering the alarming rise in the rate of asthma and respiratory diseases among school children, it is of great importance to investigate all probable causes. Outside of the home, children spend most of their time in school. Many studies have researched the indoor environmental quality of primary and secondary school buildings to determine the e...

Building performance evaluation is generally carried out through a non-automated process, where computational models are iteratively built and simulated, and their energy demand is calculated. This study presents a computational tool that automates the generation of optimal building designs in respect of their Life Cycle Carbon Footprint (LCCF) and...

Home air purifiers (HAPs), utilizing HEPA filtration as the primary mechanism of air cleaning aim to reduce particulate matter (PM) concentrations that are known to be harmful to health. In the work described here, PM2.5 concentrations were continuously monitored for 6 months inside and at the ground floor exterior of 18 flats in London. Median bed...

In much of the world, people spend on average 65% of their time indoors at home. It is, therefore, important to understand the quality of air in homes, and how best to improve it. Negative health impacts associated with exposure to particulate matter are well documented, and account for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Technologies ar...

Hospitals are controlled yet complex ecosystems which provide a therapeutic environment that promotes healing, wellbeing, and work efficiency for patients and staff. As these buildings accommodate the sick and vulnerable, occupant wellbeing and good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that deals with indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, lighti...

Calibrated building performance simulation models are useful in operational performance assessments. The current measurement and verification (M&V) protocols provide the statistical criteria to check model accuracy. However, they do not describe the criteria for uncertainty or the accuracy of dependent parameters such as zone environmental outputs....

The present study benefits from a field monitoring campaign across 18 flats in London to analyse the operation of windows by occupants and pinpoint the driving factors. The dataset covers an extensive set of environmental parameters including indoor and outdoor air temperature, relative humidity, CO2, PM2.5 and PM10 collected over non-heating and h...

Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) is grouped into four main categories: thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ), visual and acoustic comfort. Individual aspects of IEQ are investigated to examine their impact on children's overall comfort in primary schools in the UK. This study has surveyed 805 children in 32 naturally ventilated classrooms durin...

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in classrooms has a significant impact on children’s academic performance, health and well‐being, therefore, understanding children’s perception of IAQ is vital. This study investigates how children’s perception of IAQ is affected by environmental variables and thermal sensation. In total, 29 naturally‐ventilated classrooms...

To deal with the concerns regarding the energy performance gap, detailed operational performance assessment of buildings is necessary to identify and address the root causes of the gap. In this paper, we demonstrate, via a case study of an office building, the use of a new framework based on calibrated energy models to find and validate deviations...

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humankind in the 21 st century. In the building sector, a warming climate will significantly alter building occupant health, comfort and wellbeing. School buildings in the UK, in particular, might face additional challenges, such as indoor overheating risks due to high internal gains in classro...

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in classrooms is assessed by CO2 levels and Ventilation Rates (VRs). Factors affecting VRs fall into Contextual, Occupant and Building (COB) related factors. This study investigates how VRs are affected by COB factors in 29 naturally-ventilated classrooms in the UK during Non-Heating and Heating seasons. Building-related fa...

Long-term, continuous air quality monitoring has been carried out alongside seasonal passive sampling within a case study a hospital, school and office building, representing a cross-section of the UK non-domestic sector. This approach aimed at adopting state of the art sensor technology to provide a greater understanding of the variations in indoo...

The energy performance gap in buildings is a well-known phenomenon. However, its actual definition and extent is dependent on the baseline used for defining the gap. In this paper a calibration-based methodology is used to identify and validate the root causes of the performance gap. Following analysis of the performance of four case studies in the...

There is a policy-driven focus, at present, on improving the energy performance of buildings. However, energy-related issues alone do not capture the full impact of buildings on occupants and the wider environment. The performance of a building also includes occupant wellbeing and indoor environmental quality. Specifically, in schools, indoor envir...

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is affected by Context, Occupant and Building (COB) related factors. This paper evaluates IAQ as a function of occupant-related factors including occupants’ Adaptive Behaviours (ABs), occupancy patterns, occupant’s CO2 generation rates and occupancy density. This study observed occupant-related factors of 805 children in 29...

The construction industry contributes significantly to energy consumption and carbon emissions. Moreover, people spend more time inside buildings, so their health is increasingly influenced by indoor environmental conditions. When considered through these lenses, the concept of total building performance can span energy consumption, the associated...

The objective of this study is to develop a thermal comfort model by incorporating public health datasets and influencing parameters associated with both health and thermal comfort. There are three systematic influencing parameters identified in this study: socioeconomic development, population density, and annual mean temperature. The thermal comf...

The “performance gap” in the United Kingdom construction industry is a persistent problem as new building development projects underperform more often than not. The “performance gap” is partially attributed to the number of stages involved in building project development and the coordination difficulties of partners with different incentives. The p...

An experimental study was conducted to determine whether, and by how much, worker exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) would be reduced when robots are used to apply spray foam insulation. The study was undertaken in a test room where the ventilation rates were controlled and temperature and relative humidity were recorded. Four independen...

An experimental study was conducted using SPME-GC-MS and TD-GC-MS to analyse VOC emissions from three spray foam insulation products. Two closed cell and one open cell materials were tested using SPME-GC-MS passive sampling and a range of VOCs were found with 1,2- dichloropropane (1,2-DCP) found in all products. TD-GC-MS analysis of product 1 (a cl...

The present paper reports on the development and crossvalidation of a number of light switch-on behaviour models with a focus on the implications of inter-occupant and site-specific diversities. To this end, the study models light switch-on actions by occupants at three office buildings in London, Ottawa and Vienna. The models, which are developed...

Calibration of energy models is mathematically a highly-parameterized and under-determined problem. Hospitals are energy intensive buildings that have complex and varying specifications for their functions and operations. Calibration of energy models of hospitals is further challenging due to difficulties such as base-load estimation and end-use di...

Simulation is commonly utilized as a best practice approach to assess building performance in the building industry. However, the built environment is complex and influenced by a large number of independent and interdependent variables, making it difficult to achieve an accurate representation of real-world building energy in-use. This gives rise t...

The policy-driven focus, at present, is to improve the energy performance of buildings. However, energy-related issues alone do not capture the full impact of buildings on occupants and the wider environment. The performance of a building also includes occupant wellbeing and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Specifically, for schools, there is a...

The policy-driven focus, at present, is to improve the energy performance of buildings. However, energy-related issues alone do not capture the full impact of buildings on occupants and the wider environment. The performance of a building also includes occupant wellbeing and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Specifically, for schools, there is a...

Innovations in materials, construction techniques and technologies in building construction and refurbishment aim to reduce carbon emissions and produce low-energy buildings. However, in-use performance consistently misses design specifications, particularly those of operational energy use and indoor environmental quality. This performance gap risk...

Accessing sufficient data for understanding how energy is used in non-domestic buildings is deemed to be a challenge in many countries. In the UK, such a challenge has led to limited understanding of long-term changes in energy use of buildings. This study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the trends in energy use across the public sector n...

A Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled computational approach was presented in this paper for the automated specification of steel reinforcement to support the optimisation of reinforced concrete (RC) flat slabs. After importing slab geometries from BIM, the proposed procedure utilised internal forces output from Finite Element Model (FEM)...

The design and optimisation of building structures is a complex undertaking that requires the effective collaboration of various stakeholders and involves technical and non-technical expertise. The paper investigated an integrated decision-support framework using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in structural design optimisation. The aim of the st...

The indoor environmental quality and energy performance of two modern secondary schools in the UK which have fundamentally different environmental strategies were investigated during building performance evaluations. The performances of these buildings against the projected weather data for future were also analysed. The results point to significan...

Because the optimisation of various building components and structural systems is often performed in isolation, this study developed an integrated approach for the optimisation of building life cycle carbon emissions and costs embedding multiple analysis levels. The functionalities of the proposed approach were tested in a realistic building scenar...

The refurbishments and replacements of existing buildings can significantly contribute to CO2 emissions reductions in the built environment. This paper presents and tests a novel approach for supporting the decision-making process in assessing the performance of refurbished buildings and their replacements, to achieve life-cycle CO2 emissions reduc...