Overview of HOMEChem: House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry

Authors

Delphine K. Farmer, Colorado State University - Fort Collins
Marina E. Vance, University of Colorado Boulder
Jon P. D. Abbatt, University of Toronto
Andrew Abeleira, Colorado State University, Fort Collins
Michael R. Alves, University of California San Diego
Richard Corsi, Portland State UniversityFollow
Peter F. DeCarlo, Drexel University
Allen H. Goldstein, University of California - Berkeley
Vicki H. Grassian, University of California - San Diego
Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz, University of Texas at Austin
Jose L. Jimenez, University of Colorado BoulderFollow
Tara Kahan, Drexel University
multiple additional authors

Sponsor

We thank the entire HOMEChem science team of faculty, researchers, and students, over 60 members in total, for operating instruments, volunteering for activities, and contributing to experimental design. We thank the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for funding the HOMEChem experiment and analysis (G-2017-9944; G-2017-9692; G-2016-7049; G-2016-7050, G-2018-11062; G-2018-11031; G-2018-10128; G-2018-11366; G- 2018-11035, G-2016-7173). JLJ also acknowledges funding from the CIRES Innovative Research Program. Dr Manabu Shiraiwa, Dr Glenn Morrison and the MOCCIE group provided input on experimental design. We acknowledge the Novoselac research group for preparing and operating the test house, the UT Austin CEER staff for logistical support, and the UT Austin Pickle Research Campus for hosting the research project. REO thanks Jesse H. Kroll at MIT for the use of his HR-ToF-AMS for off-line AMS data collection.

Published In

Environmental Science Processes & Impacts

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

Subjects

Indoor aerosols -- research, Environmental chemistry -- Organic material

Abstract

The House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry (HOMEChem) study is a collaborative field investigation designed to probe how everyday activities influence the emissions, chemical transformations and removal of trace gases and particles in indoor air. Sequential and layered experiments in a research house included cooking, cleaning, variable occupancy, and window-opening. This paper describes the overall design of HOMEChem and presents preliminary case studies investigating the concentrations of reactive trace gases, aerosol particles, and surface films. Cooking was a large source of VOCs, CO2, NOx, and particles. By number, cooking particles were predominantly in the ultrafine mode. Organic aerosol dominated the submicron mass, and, while variable between meals and throughout the cooking process, was dominated by components of hydrocarbon character and low oxygen content, similar to cooking oil. Air exchange in the house ensured that cooking particles were present for only short periods. During unoccupied background intervals, particle concentrations were lower indoors than outdoors. The cooling coils of the house ventilation system induced cyclic changes in water soluble gases. Even during unoccupied periods, concentrations of many organic trace gases were higher indoors than outdoors, consistent with housing materials being potential sources of these compounds to the outdoor environment. Organic material accumulated on indoor surfaces, and exhibited chemical signatures similar to indoor organic aerosol.

Description

This Open Access Article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported Licence

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9EM00228F

DOI

10.1039/C9EM00228F

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/29462

Citation Details

Farmer, D. K., Vance, M. E., Abbatt, J. P. D., Abeleira, A., Alves, M. R., Arata, C., ... & DeCarlo, P. F. (2019). Overview of HOMEChem: House Observations of Microbial and Environmental Chemistry. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 21(8), 1280-1300.