Assessment of indoor air quality parameters at Ambulatory Care Centre XYZ, Malaysia

Abstract

Abstract Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems are very important and necessary to consider in hospital and health care facilities such as in AMBULATORY CARE CENTRE XYZ (ACCXYZ), Malaysia. Majority complaints made by the hospital staff at level 1, state that they felt uncomfortable and suffering coldness due to very low temperature of centralizing air-conditioning especially during non-peak hours. Therefore, five parameters pointed to be measured based on the complaints from staff due to IAQ problems especially from Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. By using 4 in 1 Meter Kit, three environmental parameters recorded such as air temperature (t), relative humidity (RH) and air velocity (AV) and the average result are 22.5°C, 57.7% and 0.02 m/s, respectively. Meanwhile, two chemical parameters recorded are carbon dioxide (CO2) with 875ppm and formaldehyde (CH2O) is 0.11ppm were measured using IAQ Calc model 7545 and Formaldehyde Meter Z-300 devices value within the standard. Thus, the result shows that the HVAC system affects the IAQ parameters in ACCXYZ building through a major impact on the temperature due to patient and staff environment and also to the operation of the sensitive machine in the building.