In the frame of  LIFEVISIONS project, an innovative photocatalytic paint was produced for indoor air quality improvement and energy saving purposes. The photocatalytic efficiency of VISIONS photo-paint was estimated both in lab and real scale applications.

Real scale application of the VISIONS photo-paints (organic & inorganic) were implemented in order to estimate their effectiveness to degrade air pollutants as well as to eliminate energy consumption. The application took place in 2 Demo- Houses which are located on the premises of FORTH in Crete and comprise a unique European facility.

The two demo houses are located on the premises of FORTH in Crete and comprise a unique European facility. The semi-industrial photo paints will be applied on the surface of 1x1m panes such as gypsum board, for the performance of real time measurements in the Demo-Houses. The interior area of the Demo-House where the up-scale panels will be applied is 9m2 (ceiling and walls) and approx. 1,5 kg of phot-paint will be used. The upscale coating panels will be placed in one of the Demo-Houses, the so called “Green House”. The other one will be considered as reference: the “Conventional House”. The two houses are separated by a control room, where the NCSRD’s monitoring equipment (NOx, O3 and BTEX analysers) will be placed.

The VISIONS photo-paints were applied on the surface of the interior area in one of the Demo-Houses (ceiling and walls approx. 37m2) the so call "Green House". The other one was considered as reference: the "Conventional House". The two houses are separated by a control room where the monitoring equipment (NOx, O3 and BTEX analyzers) were placed.

Both houses (Green and Conventional) were equipped as follows: Monitoring equipment coupled with data loggers continuously recorded concentration of NOx, O3, and VOCs, temperature, RH% and light intensity inside each ‘house’. Houses were fed with air pollutants in order to achieve the required pollution level (close to real indoor conditions). By activating the photocatalytic building material (turn on the light) the pollution level in the ‘Green House’ was reduced up to 61.7% while in the conventional one up to 24.6%. All side effects (adsorption on walls, photolysis, photocatalysis etc) was also estimated. Hence, the feasibility of the photocatalytic building materials to reduce the air pollutants introduced in the Demo-House indoor environment were estimated through the comparison of the air quality levels and energy consumption in the two “houses”.

The efficiency of the best performing photo-paint in terms of de-pollution and reduction of the energy consumption was further investigated in real scale application to the Hellenic Naval Academy (HNA) in Piraeus. The application of the VISIONS innovative paint was implemented in the:

• Naval Cadets Teaching building: The building is three (3) floors high and its use is dedicated for teaching. It consists mainly of teaching rooms (at least 21 class rooms) and
• Naval Cadets Accommodation building: This building is four (4) floors high and its use is dedicated to the accommodation and the rest of Naval Cadets (including 3 ball rooms with capacity of 200 each).

These buildings of the Hellenic Naval Academy (HNA) are located in the port city of Piraeus the largest port in Greece and one of the largest in Europe but also one of the most polluted urban cities in terms of air quality. The HNA is located adjacent to the main entrance of the port where heavy duty commercial activity takes place. For that purpose, it is highly important to apply innovative methods for improving air quality in the premises of HNA where more than 400 naval cadets and other military and civil personnel follow an intensive daily routine of academic, athletic, naval and military education and training

Real-scale tests took place in the Hellenic Naval Academy building where VISIONS photo-paint was evaluated with regards to Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) improvement. Three pairs of classrooms (one in each floor) were selected for the evaluation of the VISIONS photo-paint. Each pair consisted of a “Green” classroom, where the photo-paint was applied and a “Conventional” one which was paint with a conventional commercial paint. Both rooms (Green and Conventional) were equipped with NOx and VOCs continues monitoring analyzers while the monitoring duration was approximately 20-30 days in each pair of classrooms. Hence, the feasibility of the photocatalytic paints to reduce the air pollutants in the Green classrooms of the Naval Academy was estimated through the comparison of the air quality levels in the two classrooms. Results showed an average 20% and 12% lower concentration of NO and Toluene respectively in the green classroom compared to the conventional

Taking into consideration the fact that air quality in indoor microenvironments can be controlled easier than outdoors and the expected results of an applied methodology can be easily quantified in indoor environments, VISIONS is the ‘model’ for the implementation of an innovative and cost-effective methodology for the reduction of indoor air pollutants concentrations.