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Thermal Environmental Interference with Airborne Bacteria and Fungi Levels in Air-Conditioned Offices
L.T. Wong, K.W. Mui, P.S. Hui, W.Y. Chan and A.K.Y. Law
Indoor and Built Environment 2008 17: 122
DOI: 10.1177/1420326X08089260
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Original Paper

Indoor and Built

Environment

Indoor Built Environ 2008;17;2:122127

Accepted: January 17, 2008

Thermal Environmental
Interference with Airborne
Bacteria and Fungi Levels in
Air-Conditioned Offices
L.T. Wong

K.W. Mui

P.S. Hui W.Y. Chan

A.K.Y. Law

Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, China

Key Words
Offices E Air temperature E Bacteria
E Humidity E Microbes

and fungi levels would be correlated with the thermal

environmental parameters in some offices ( p50.0001).

Abstract
Indoor airborne bacteria and fungi levels can be
selected as indicators of a healthy indoor environment.
This study investigated the relationships between the
airborne bacteria levels, fungi levels, and thermal
environmental parameters, i.e., air temperature and
relative humidity, in some offices with a Mechanical
Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (MVAC) system
operating. A total of 101 samples were collected from
two typical Hong Kong air-conditioned office premises.
There was evidence that the operation of the MVAC
system would have significant influence on both of the
indoor airborne bacteria and fungi levels. The results
showed that no significant difference in airborne
bacteria and fungi levels was observed between offices
having similar thermal environments ( p 4 0.05). However, significantly higher airborne bacteria and fungi
levels were found in the same office during non-office
hours when the air-conditioning system was shut down
( p50.03). It was also reported that the airborne bacteria

Exposure to indoor airborne bacteria and fungi could

cause sick building syndrome and a wide range of adverse
health effects [13]. Indoor airborne bacteria are normally
present due to the presence of humans and fungi are
usually imported from the outdoor environment [4,5].
Although various guidelines on indoor airborne bacteria
level have already been established by different organizations [68], an international threshold for indoor airborne
levels of fungi with regard to assessment of an acceptable
indoor air quality (IAQ) has yet to be unified.
The survival of indoor airborne bacteria and fungi
depends strongly on environmental conditions such as air
temperature and relative humidity [911]. Water activity,
a measure of the moistness of building materials, is affected
by relative humidity and its optimal level for indoor airborne
fungi is between 0.83 and 0.96 [10,11]. These thermal
environmental conditions affect the germination, growth,

SAGE Publications 2008

Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore
DOI: 10.1177/1420326X08089260
Accessible online at http://ibe.sagepub.com

Dr KW Mui
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Hong Kong, China. Tel. 85 227 665 835, Fax 85 227 657 198.
E-Mail behorace@polyu.edu.hk

Introduction

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and development of indoor micro-organisms [11,12]. Since

Hong Kong is hot, humid, and densely populated with a
dense urban environment, it should provide a favorable
milieu for indoor airborne microbial growth [13,14]. The
optimum air temperature range reported for the germination
and growth of common indoor airborne fungi isolated in
Hong Kong is from 258C to 308C [11].
A poorly designed, improperly maintained, or
microbially contaminated Mechanical Ventilation and
Air-Conditioning (MVAC) system may affect IAQ and
pose health risks by transporting micro-organisms from
the locus of contamination to occupants in the vicinity of
the building [15,16]. Besides, water spray humidifiers
containing stagnant water, filters packed with organic
dust, cooling coils covered with condensation, and any
excessively humid interior can provide moisture and
nutrients for microbial growth [17].
However, questions remain about the level of
confidence in an airborne bacteria and fungi assessment.
Assessment results with limited samples might be deficient
in representing personal exposures. It was shown that an
insufficient number of samples and assessment results with
unknown confidence intervals might even contribute to the
failure of concluding significant associations between
microbial concentrations and personal health [18,19].
Although long-term and comprehensive measurements of
bacteria and fungi levels can be a good approach for
monitoring regional indoor air pollution levels, a rapid
estimate of the office failure rate might be more applicable
to a timely decision on the mitigation actions of the
MVAC system [1922]. Therefore, instead of recording
a continuous profile the average of repeated sample
values of airborne bacteria and fungi levels could be
taken within an assessment period.
This study investigated the relationship of airborne
bacteria and fungi levels with thermal environmental
parameters in air-conditioned offices. Mathematical expressions were proposed for the estimates of airborne bacteria
and fungi levels correlated with the parameters measured.
The results should be useful in detection of asymptotic
microbiological pollutant problems by a quick estimate of
the probable failure rate of offices over a region against
certain bacteria levels from a few samples, while avoiding
an inappropriate level of reliance on the results.

buildings located near to busy streets of Hong Kong [13].

Two open-plan offices (A and B) without any water
damage or fungus problems were chosen. Air handling
unit (AHU) and fan coil unit (FCU) systems were installed
in both premises. The AHUs were equipped with panel
disposable pre-filters. Each pre-filter that consisted of a
layer of aluminum screen and a layer of fiber filter was
claimed to be cleaned every 3 months and replaced every
half-year. For each of the FCUs, the return air plenum
was equipped with an aluminum screen filter that was also
claimed to be cleaned every 3 months.
A number of 12-hr measurements were performed and
temporal concentration profiles of airborne bacteria and
fungi levels during office hours were reported. In the
absence of a standard measurement protocol, a trial
protocol with four time periods within a day was used [13]:
1. one hour before the air-conditioning systems were
turned on;
2. immediately after the air-conditioning systems were
turned on;
3. immediately after lunch time;
4. immediately after office hours when the airconditioning systems were turned off.
Air samples (5 min each) were collected at the center of
two offices (1.1 m from the floor) by an Anderson 6 Stage
cascade impactor. Tryptocase Soy Agar and Malt Extract
Agar (3% malt extract, 1.5% agar, 0.5% peptone,
supplemented with 0.1 mg
mL1 chloramphenicol)
were used for sampling of airborne bacteria and fungi
respectively. The collected bacteria and fungi samples were
then incubated and quantified as Colony-Forming
Units per cubic meter (CFU
m3) of air.

Results and Discussions

One-week measurements of airborne bacteria and fungi

levels were conducted in two in-use air-conditioned office

Table 1 summarizes the measured air temperature, the

relative humidity, the airborne bacteria and fungi counts
of the two offices (A and B) during office hours (when the
main MVAC system was operating) and non-office hours
(when the main system was shut down). The air
temperature measured in the office hours was between
198C and 248C and the relative humidity was between 55%
and 80%. The results were not significantly different from
the thermal environment of some other nonresidential airconditioned spaces in Hong Kong where the air temperature was between 19.38C and 25.28C and the relative
humidity between 44% and 90% [2023].

Temperature Effects on Airborne Microbes in A/C Offices

Indoor Built Environ 2008;17:122127

Review of Field Measurements

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123

It was reported that a small air-conditioning unit was

operated during non-office hours to maintain acceptable
relative humidity so that no significant difference in
average relative humidity between office and non-office
hours was reported ( p  0.77). Nevertheless, the average
air temperature recorded during the non-office hours was
significantly higher ( p  0.001).
The airborne bacteria levels were 249 CFU
m3 and
280
CFU
m3 and the fungi levels were 42 CFU
m3 and
52 CFU
m3 for offices A and B in office hours; and for
the non-office hours, the airborne bacteria levels were
429 CFU
m3 and 742 CFU
m3 and the fungi levels were

301 CFU
m3 and 222 CFU
m3 for offices A and B

respectively. The airborne bacteria and fungi counts
could be approximated by a geometric distribution
( p  0.05) with the percentiles of the measured values as
shown in Figure 1 and the geometric means and standard
deviations as summarized in Table 1.
This study showed that the operation of the MVAC
system in offices could have significant influence on
both indoor airborne bacteria and fungi levels. Table 2
summarizes the t-test p-values for the measurements
from offices A and B. There were parallel observations
in some air-conditioned environments where air

Table 1. Summary of measurement results in two air-conditioned offices

Office

Office hours
ON

Non-office hours
OFF

Office hours
ON

Non-office hours
OFF

Airborne bacteria level (CFU.m3)

Geometric mean GM
Geometric standard deviation GSD
Sample size N

249
2.1
50

429
2.6
23

280
2.0
16

742
1.9
12

Airborne fungi level (CFU.m3)

Geometric mean GM
Geometric standard deviation GSD
Sample size N

42
5.4
50

301
6.2
23

52
3.1
16

222
4.8
12

Air temperature (8C)

Arithmetic mean AM
Arithmetic standard deviation ASD

22.1
1.5

23.2
1.3

20.2
1.4

22.3
1.4

Relative humidity (%)

Arithmetic mean AM
Arithmetic standard deviation ASD

66.5
4.7

67.9
3.6

62.9
2.3

66.2
6.2

100

100

80

80
Percentile (%)

Percentile (%)

period
Main HVAC system operations

60
40

60
40
20

20

0
10

100

1000

10

10,000

Bacteria level B (CFU.m3)

100

1000

Fungi level F (CFU.m3)

A/C on

A/C off
Office A
Office B

Fig. 1. Airborne bacteria and fungi levels in two air-conditioned offices.

124

Indoor Built Environ 2008;17:122127

Wong et al.

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10,000

temperature and relative humidity were reported to have

influence on the airborne bacteria levels. From the
results, the bacteria and fungi levels between offices A
and B were comparable ( p 4 0.05) when the main
MVAC system was either on (office hours) or off (nonoffice hours). For each office by itself (i.e. A or B),
however, both of the airborne bacteria and fungi levels
were significantly higher when the main system was off
( p50.03). It was believed while the main MVAC system
was not in operation, air temperature increased and
water vapors condensed onto the indoor building
materials as well as inside the system; these favored
indoor microbial growth [3,15].
This study observed that both the airborne bacteria
levels
B (CFU
m3) and fungi levels
F (CFU
m3) of the
two air-conditioned offices would be correlated with
( p50.0001) the thermal environmental parameters air

Table 2. Statistical analysis of airborne bacteria and fungi

levels in two air-conditioned offices with various MVAC system
operation modes
Office designation, operation of MVAC system

t-test p-value

Airborne bacteria level

Office A, ON
Office A, OFF
Office A, ON
Office B, ON

Office B, ON
Office B, OFF
Office A, OFF
Office B, OFF

40.05
40.05
50.001
50.03

Airborne fungi level

Office A, ON
Office A, OFF
Office A, ON
Office B, ON

Office B, ON
Office B, OFF
Office A, OFF
Office B, OFF

40.5
40.6
50.001
50.02

temperature T (8C) and relative humidity RH (%) in the

measured ranges 198C  T  258C and 50%  RH  80%.

B 1:9  107 T 4:47 RH1:85

F 3:3  1022 T 6:01 RH8:71

For the above correlations, the standard errors of airborne

bacteria and fungi levels were "B 438 CFU
m3 and
"F 683 CFU
m3 respectively. The measured levels
B
and
F, plotted together with the predicted levels against
indoor air temperature 198C268C and relative humidity
4585%, are shown in Figure 2. They were comparable
with the measurements found earlier in some other
nondomestic A/C spaces as illustrated in the figure
[2023]. As expected, an office under higher air temperature and relative humidity within the measured ranges
would give higher bacteria and fungi levels.
Figure 2 also presents the numbers recommended for an
excellent office environment: thermal environmental conditions in which 208C  T  25.58C and 40%  RH  70%
[6]; maximum airborne bacteria level 500 CFU
m3 and
maximum fungi level 200 CFU
m3 [8].
To attain the excellent airborne bacteria and fungi levels
at 60% RH, for instance, the air temperatures should be
23.58C and 23.98C respectively. The results showed that
some thermally excellent air-conditioned spaces would have
expected bacteria and fungi levels beyond the advised limits.
For both offices A and B, correlations with their airborne
bacteria and fungi levels were observed and the results are
shown in Figure 3 ( p50.0005).

F 0:18
1:09
B ;

70 
B  2900

Measurements with
RH = 4490% (13)
10,000

85%
75%
65%
55%

1000

Fungi level F (CFU.m3)

Bacteria level B (CFU.m3)

10,000

100
Excellent
RH = 45%
10

65%
1000

55%
45%

100

10
ACGIH guideline
1

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Air temperature T(C)

Office A
Office B

75%

RH = 85%

422 offices in Hong Kong; RH = 55 (20)

26

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Air temperature T(C)

Recommended excellent thermal
environmental conditions (23)

Fig. 2. Correlations for the airborne bacteria and fungi levels in two air-conditioned offices.

Temperature Effects on Airborne Microbes in A/C Offices

Indoor Built Environ 2008;17:122127

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125

Fungi level F (CFU.m3)

10,000

1000

100
10

Office A
Office B

1
10

100

1000

10,000

Bacteria level B (CFU.m3)

Fig. 3. Correlations between the airborne bacteria and fungi levels

( p50.0005).

Conclusions
In this study, the relationship of airborne bacteria
and fungi levels to thermal environmental parameters
(i.e. air temperature and relative humidity) was investigated in two air-conditioned offices in a sub-tropical
climate. The office thermal environments were found
to be similar and there was no significant difference in
airborne bacteria and fungi levels between the offices at
any time ( p 4 0.05). Yet, significantly higher levels of
airborne bacteria and fungi were observed in the
same office when the main MVAC system was shut

down ( p50.03). The measurements showed that the

airborne bacteria and fungi levels would be correlated
with the thermal environmental parameters ( p50.0001).
Using the measurement data, mathematical expressions
were proposed for a rapid estimation of the expected
airborne bacteria and fungi levels under certain thermal
environmental conditions. These expressions were
proven practical tools for epistemic IAQ assessment of
some air-conditioned offices in the same region [24].
Since indoor thermal parameters can be selected as a
reference to identify the performance of the indoor
environment and estimate the failure rates due to
excessive airborne bacteria and fungi levels, this study
should provide a useful source of information for
policymakers to evaluate the IAQ of some air-conditioned offices in a sub-tropical climate.

Acknowledgment
The testing facility described in this work was partially funded
by research grants from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
(GYE80, GYF21) and from the Research Grants Council of the
HKSAR (PolyU 5305/06E). The work described in this paper
was substantially supported by a grant from the Research Grants
Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
(PolyU 5248/06E).

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