STEICO_IBR_Expert_Report
Expert report no. 3020 - 1092
Page 9 of 19
2.3 Solvent and odoriferous VOC substance testing
With an increasing presence of chemical substances at our workplaces and in everyday life, the
ambient air quality in indoor environment has deteriorated continually. For workplaces, TLV val-
ues (threshold limit values) reflecting the concentration of harmful substances have been de-
fined. For habitable rooms, however, where people spend much more time, there are still no le-
gally stipulated maximum quantities or limit values for harmful substances in the indoor air. It is
the declared objective of the new federal building codes in Germany and the European Con-
struction Products Directive to protect the health of building users. The corresponding board
which is responsible for finding and establishing VOC limit values is called ECA (European Col-
laborative Action). As early as in 1997, this board recommended the use of the so-called LCI
(Lowest Concentration of Interest) as an evaluation scheme, i.e. concentrations that are just of
interest from a toxicological point of view.
With the exception of pesticides, volatile
organic substances were classified ac-
cording to the WHO definitions with re-
spect to their boiling ranges or the volatili-
ty resulting from it. The tested materials all
have boiling points, which fall into the range shown below.
Test method: The tests are conducted by means of VOC emission chamber measurement ac-
cording to DIN EN ISO 16000-9. The air exchange rate was adapted to the surface size of the test
body. The following test parameters were selected:
Loading factor 0.4 m²/m³ corresponds to floor material
Loading factor 0.95 m²/m³ or 1.0 m²/m³ corresponds to wall material
for: STEICOtherm SD
Chamber Vol-
ume
Loading Factor
Air Exchange
Rate
Surface of Test
Device
Air Tempera-
ture
Relative Hu-
midity
60 l
0.4 m²/m³
0.5/h ± 0.05/h
240 cm
2
23 ± 1 °C
50 ± 3 %
for: STEICOzell
Chamber Vol-
ume
Loading Factor
Air Exchange
Rate
Surface of Test
Device
Air Tempera-
ture
Relative Hu-
midity
60 l
0.95 m²/m³
0.5/h ± 0.05/h
570 cm
2
23 ± 1 °C
50 ± 3 %
for: STEICOunderfloor
Chamber Vol-
ume
Loading Factor
Air Exchange
Rate
Surface of Test
Device
Air Tempera-
ture
Relative Hu-
midity
225 l
0.4 m²/m³
0.5/h ± 0.05/h
900 cm
2
23 ± 1 °C
50 ± 3 %