Purpose

As suggested in many previous studies, good thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) played a significant role in ensuring human comfort, health and productivity in buildings. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the thermal comfort and IAQ conditions of open-plan office areas within a green-certified campus building through a post occupancy evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the field measurement method, environmental dataloggers were positioned at three office areas during office hours to measure the levels of thermal comfort parameters, CO2 concentrations and the supply air rates. At the same time, questionnaires were distributed to the available office staff to obtain their perception of the indoor environment. The findings were then compared with the recommended environmental comfort ranges and used to calculate the thermal comfort indices.

Findings

Results show that the physical parameters were generally within acceptable ranges of a local guideline. The neutral temperature based on the actual mean vote at these areas was 23.9°C, which is slightly lower than the predicted thermal neutrality of 25.2°C. From the surveyed findings, about 81% of the occupants found their thermal environment comfortable with high adaptation rates. A preference for cooler environments was found among the workers. Meanwhile, the air quality was perceived to be clean by a majority of the respondents, and the mean ventilation rate per person was identified to be sufficient.

Research limitations/implications

This study focussed on the thermal environment and air quality at selected office spaces only. More work should be carried out in other regularly occupied workplaces and study areas of the green educational building to allow a more thorough analysis of the indoor air conditions.

Practical implications

This paper highlights on the thermal comfort and air quality conditions of the air-conditioned office spaces in a green-certified campus building and is intended to assist the building services engineers in effective air conditioning control. The findings reported are useful for thermal comfort, IAQ and subsequently energy efficiency improvements in such building type where adjustments on the air temperature set-point can be considered according to the actual requirements. This study will be extended to other green campus spaces for a more exhaustive analysis of the indoor environment.

Originality/value

There is limited information pertaining to the environmental comfort levels in offices of green campus in the tropics. This study is, therefore, one of the earliest attempts to directly explore the thermal comfort and IAQ conditions in such workplace using both on-site physical measurement and questionnaire survey.

中文翻译：

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热带绿色校园建筑办公空间热舒适度和室内空气质量的入驻后评价

目的

正如许多先前的研究所表明的那样，良好的热舒适性和室内空气质量 (IAQ) 在确保建筑物的人类舒适性、健康和生产力方面发挥了重要作用。因此，本研究旨在通过入住后评估评估绿色认证校园建筑内开放式办公区域的热舒适性和室内空气质量条件。

设计/方法/方法

使用现场测量方法，环境数据记录器在办公时间内被放置在三个办公区域，以测量热舒适参数、二氧化碳浓度和送风率的水平。同时，调查问卷被分发给可用的办公室工作人员，以了解他们对室内环境的看法。然后将研究结果与推荐的环境舒适范围进行比较，并用于计算热舒适指数。

发现

结果表明，物理参数通常在当地指导方针的可接受范围内。基于这些地区实际平均投票的中性温度为 23.9°C，略低于预测的 25.2°C 的热中性。根据调查结果，大约 81% 的住户认为他们的热环境舒适且适应率高。在工人中发现了对凉爽环境的偏好。同时，大部分受访者认为空气质量是干净的，人均平均通风量被认为是足够的。

研究限制/影响

本研究仅关注选定办公空间的热环境和空气质量。应在绿色教育大楼的其他经常占用的工作场所和学习区开展更多工作，以便对室内空气状况进行更彻底的分析。

实际影响

本文重点介绍了绿色认证校园建筑中空调办公空间的热舒适性和空气质量状况，旨在帮助建筑服务工程师进行有效的空调控制。报告的研究结果对于此类建筑类型的热舒适性、室内空气质量以及随后的能源效率改进很有用，其中可以根据实际要求考虑对空气温度设定点进行调整。这项研究将扩展到其他绿色校园空间，以对室内环境进行更详尽的分析。

原创性/价值

关于热带地区绿色校园办公室环境舒适度的信息有限。因此，这项研究是最早尝试使用现场物理测量和问卷调查直接探索此类工作场所的热舒适度和室内空气质量条件的尝试之一。