Comparison of ventilation strategies during bake-out in winter at newly built apartment buildings

To reduce the concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde emitted from building materials and furnishings, it has been suggested that new buildings undergo a bake-out. According to the existing studies [3, 4], ventilation during a bake-out is believed to be essential for reducing the concentration of indoor air pollutants. For a practical use of bake-out, several ventilation strategies such as natural and mechanical ventilation can be considered. The aim of this study is to compare the effect of decreasing the concentration of indoor air pollutants according to ventilation strategies during a bake-out. For this purpose, four experimental cases were tested under different ventilation and heating conditions in a newly built apartment building using a radiant floor heating system in Korea. Among four experimental cases, unit 1 was reference, unit 2 was baked out without ventilation, unit 3 was baked out with natural and mechanical ventilation (opening windows and operating exhaust fans in kitchen and bathrooms), and unit 4 was baked out with natural ventilation (opening windows). The experimental results show that reduction rate of the concentration of indoor air pollutants in unit 3 baked out with natural and mechanical ventilation is the highest among the test units.