To investigate the impacts of an energy efficiency retrofit, indoor air quality and resident health were evaluated at a low‐income senior housing apartment complex in Phoenix, Arizona, before and after a green energy building renovation. Indoor and outdoor air quality sampling was carried out simultaneously with a questionnaire to characterize personal habits and general health of residents. Measured indoor formaldehyde levels before the building retrofit routinely exceeded reference exposure limits, but in the long‐term follow‐up sampling, indoor formaldehyde decreased for the entire study population by a statistically significant margin. Indoor PM levels were dominated by fine particles and showed a statistically significant decrease in the long‐term follow‐up sampling within certain resident subpopulations (i.e. residents who report smoking and residents who had lived longer at the apartment complex).

This study documents and explores the process of designing a device to decrease the indoor temperature and particulate matter concentration in the air of corrugated steel homes in sub-Saharan Africa. The device, named the Roof Tube, generates power from a solar panel that goes towards powering a motor that rotates blades to output a desired airflow to draw air out from the inside environment. Excess power generated goes towards charging a battery pack during the day that then powers the motor and a light (to improve indoor living quality) during the night when the solar panel cannot collect any more energy. Calculations were done to estimate the ambient indoor temperature of a model home based on the heat transfer from the sun. From this, a rough airflow was determined to offset the temperature difference between the indoor and outdoor environment. A computational fluid dynamics test was performed to determine the effectiveness of the housing design. Results from all tests displayed a low difference between outdoor and indoor temperatures leading to a low prediction of outlet airflow. The designed device prioritized effectiveness, it displaces air at 2700 cfm and charges a 54000mAh battery pack that, when solar energy generation is cut off, can power the motor and light simultaneously for on average 3.02 hours, the motor alone for 8.88 hours, and the light alone for 4.57 hours.