A Quality Assurance System for Indoor Environment and Energy Use

To achieve the intended results of building, managing and using a property requires knowledge, continuity and communication, which can be assured by a dynamic and flexible quality assurance (QA) system. Such a system, intended to ensure high-quality indoor environmental conditions, has been developed and successfully applied over the last ten years. However, although clients have been very satisfied with the QA system and its results, the pressure for energy efficiency improvement has increased. Concentration solely on either good indoor environment or energy efficiency might cause mutual adverse effects, and it is important to avoid this. Specialist researchers, property owners, builders and building managers have therefore together developed the existing QA system so that it now also includes consideration of energy use. The new QA rules have now been agreed by a representative committee consisting of private and municipality property owners, and have been tested in a school building in the spring of 2006. The main target group of the end results is the occupants. It means a lot to know, that the house one should live in or in other ways use, has a healthy indoor environment with minimal use of energy.