We spend most of our time in indoor environments. Thus, indoor air quality is of paramount importance for our health and well-being. Ventilation and air purification are essential for maintaining good indoor air quality, addressing a wide range of contaminant sources such as wood treatment in furniture, building materials, cleaning agents, indoor combustion processes but also the occupants. While the energy crisis is increasing challenges with respect to energy efficiency window ventilation, stationary ventilation systems, and mobile air purifiers require energy for heating, cooling, and/or air circulation. To ensure a healthy and comfortable indoor environment with minimal energy consumption, advanced strategies are needed, which combine ventilation and air purification measures based on factors such as room occupancy, outdoor temperature, desired health levels, and other relevant parameters in a clever way.

In this talk, we will explore indoor contaminants and their sources, the various ventilation and air purification measures along with their energy demands, and their impact on thermal comfort. We will then present experimental as well as CFD modeling and simulation approaches to assess the effects of ventilation and air purification on indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Finally, we will propose a model that determines the optimal combination of ventilation and air purification measures to minimize energy consumption while meeting defined thresholds for indoor air quality and thermal comfort.

It will be shown that it is possible to provide a healthy and comfortable indoor environment while significantly reducing the energy input to do so. In the future, validated simulation data may be used to train AI algorithms, potentially enabling the automated prediction and optimization of energy-efficient operating parameters. This talk highlights the critical role of ventilation strategies to effectively and sustainably create healthy, comfortable indoor environments. At the same time these measures will significantly contribute to the reduction of the carbon footprint in the building sector.