Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
9.
Storage
Residential building interiors are designed to provide a variety of storage
capabilities. These include bedroom and hallway closets as well as kitchen
and bathroom cabinetry. Most modern cabinetry is constructed with various
pressed-wood products. These include hardwood plywood, particle board,
medium-density fiber board (MDF) and OSB. With the exception of OSB and
softwood plywood used for shelving and counter tops, respectively, most
wood components are constructed from urea-formaldehyde resin-bonded
wood materials that have the potential to emit significant quantities of
HCHO. Formaldehyde emissions also occur from acid-cured finishes used
on exterior surfaces of hardwood cabinets and good quality furniture.
10. Attached garages
Many single-family residences have attached garages. These provide an
enclosure for motor vehicles and utilities such as furnaces, and a storage
area for the varied needs of the building's occupants.
Because of diverse uses and their physical attachment to occupied spaces,
garages may be a source of a variety of contaminants. Because occupied
spaces are negatively pressurized relative to garages, motor vehicle emis-
sions, gasoline and solvent vapors, etc., are readily drawn into living spaces.
11. Heating/cooling systems
In many parts of the world as well as the U.S., seasonal changes in outdoor
temperature require that some form of heating and cooling appliance or
system be used to provide more acceptable thermal conditions than occur
outdoors. In addition, appliances provide hot water for bathing and other
washing activities.
Energy sources and appliances used to heat residences or provide other
heating needs (such as for cooking and supplying hot water) vary widely.
In developing nations where population densities are high and resources
limited, building occupants rely on biomass fuels to cook food over poorly
vented fires, which during cold seasons also provide some degree of
warmth.
In developed countries, a variety of manufactured appliances are used
for cooking and others for space heating. Cooking appliances include natural
gas or propane-fueled stoves and ovens, electric stoves and ovens, and
microwave devices. Gas stoves and ovens are not vented to the outdoors
and, as such, are a potentially significant source of indoor air contamination.
Single-family dwellings in the U.S. are typically heated by some form
of appliance. These include vented furnaces fueled in most cases by natural
gas, propane, or oil, or, less commonly, wood or coal. Other vented fuel-fired
appliances include wood or coal stoves and, in parts of northern Europe,
fireplaces. In the U.S., fireplaces serve primarily an aesthetic and decorative
function.
