Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Sep;27(5):868-879.
doi: 10.1111/ina.12383. Epub 2017 Apr 27.

Carbon dioxide generation rates for building occupants

A Persily  1 , L de Jonge  2
Affiliations
Review

Carbon dioxide generation rates for building occupants

A Persily et al. Indoor Air. 2017 Sep.

Abstract

Indoor carbon dioxide (CO2 ) concentrations have been used for decades to characterize building ventilation and indoor air quality. Many of these applications require rates of CO2 generation from the building occupants, which are currently based on approaches and data that are several decades old. However, CO2 generation rates can be derived from well-established concepts within the fields of human metabolism and exercise physiology, which relate these rates to body size and composition, diet, and level of physical activity. This paper reviews how CO2 generation rates have been estimated in the past and discusses how they can be characterized more accurately. Based on this information, a new approach to estimating CO2 generation rates is presented, which is based on the described concepts from the fields of human metabolism and exercise physiology. Using this approach and more recent data on body mass and physical activity, values of CO2 generation rates from building occupants are presented along with the variability that may occur based on body mass and activity data.

Keywords: carbon dioxide; human metabolism; indoor air quality; standards; ventilation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Variation in CO2 generation rate at 273 K and 101 kPa associated with variation in age, body mass, and level of physical activity for males
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Variation in CO2 generation rate at 273 K and 101 kPa associated with variation in age, body mass, and level of physical activity for females
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Klauss AK, Tull RH, Roots LM, Pfafflin JR. History of the changing concepts in ventilation requirements. ASHRAE J. 1970;12:51–55.
    1. Persily A. Challenges in developing ventilation and indoor air quality standards: the story of ASHRAE Standard 62. Build Environ. 2015;91:61–69. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Persily AK. Evaluating building IAQ and ventilation with indoor carbon dioxide. ASHRAE Trans. 1997;103:193–204.
    1. Cain WS, Leaderer BP, Isseroff R, et al. Ventilation requirements in buildings—i. Control of occupancy odor and tobacco smoke odor. Atmos Environ. 1983;17:1183–1197.
    1. Persily A. What we think we know about ventilation. Int J Vent. 2006;5:275–290.