On the comparison of occupancy in relation to energy consumption and indoor environmental quality: a case study

This study was done to investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality and prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome in six small offices inPenangIsland. Indoor environmental quality measurement was conducted according to relevant standards. There are totally Sixty workers were selected to participate in an electronic questionnaire survey. Questionnaire was used to record the comfort level of respondents in the case studies and level of sick building syndrome faced by respondents. Through indoor environmental quality measurement, it is found that most of the offices facing the lighting and noise problem. The result from the questionnaire shows that in overall, the occupants satisfy with their working environment in term of indoor environmental quality although the result also shows the opinions of occupants on dissatisfaction on certain indoor environmental parameter according to case study. The study also found that most of the occupants feel drowsy and fatigue when they work within the offices. Besides, due to the difference of the indoor environmental quality of the buildings, the occupants are suffered from different symptoms of the sick building syndrome.

Download Full-text

Establishment of Key Performance Indicators for Green Building Operations Monitoring—An Application to China Case Study

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13040976 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 976 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jinqiu Li ◽

Qingqin Wang ◽

Hao Zhou

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Performance Indicators ◽

Green Building ◽

Key Performance Indicators ◽

Energy System ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Operational Performance ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Evaluation Standards

Released green building evaluation standards for operation stage include a huge number of indicators, which are very comprehensive and systematic. However, the indicators of these standards are very complicated and a large amount of time and manpower are consumed for their evaluation. To evaluate the operational performance of green buildings more practically and efficiently, some studies collect the operational data for part of the indicators (mainly focusing on building energy performance, indoor environmental quality or occupant satisfaction), which are too rough to evaluate the performance of green building. This paper proposed a total of 27 key performance indicators (KPIs) for green building operations monitoring. The number of proposed indicators is much fewer than the evaluation standards, as well as suitable for long-term monitoring, which can dramatically reduce evaluation time and cost. On the other hand, the indicators involving Outdoor environmental quality, Indoor environmental quality, HVAC system, P&D system, Renewable energy system, Total resource consumption and User behavior, which are more comprehensive and systematic than the conventional monitoring studies for operational performance of green building. Firstly, an indicators library for operations monitoring of green building was established based on relevant standards and literature review in this field. Secondly, “SMART” principle and Delphi method were adopted to select the key performance indicators for green building operations monitoring. Different background experts regarding green building industry were chosen to screen the most relevant, accessible and measurable indicators. Subsequently, two projects in China were selected for case study of key performance indicators proposed in this paper for green building operations monitoring to validate the feasibility and advancement.

Download Full-text

Indoor Environmental Quality Analysis for Optimizing Energy Consumptions Varying Air Ventilation Rates

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12020482 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 482 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Francesco Mancini ◽

Fabio Nardecchia ◽

Daniele Groppi ◽

Francesco Ruperto ◽

Carlo Romeo

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Building Envelope ◽

In Situ Monitoring ◽

Quality Analysis ◽

Airflow Rate ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Hvac System ◽

Energy Consumptions

The energy refurbishment of the existing building heritage is one of the pillars of Italian energy policy. Aiming for energy efficiency and energy saving in end uses, there are wide and diversified improvement strategies, which include interventions on the building envelope and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, with the introduction of renewable energy sources. The research aims at evaluating the building energy consumptions and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), varying the airflow rates handled by the HVAC system. A Case Study (the Aula Magna of a university building) is analysed; an in-situ monitoring campaign was carried out to evaluate the trend of some environmental parameters that are considered to be significant when varying the external airflow rates handled by the HVAC system. Additionally, dynamic simulations were carried out, with the aim of evaluating the energy savings coming from the airflow rates reduction. The results of this case study highlight the opportunity to achieve significant energy savings, with only slight variations in IEQ; a 50% reduction in airflow rate would decrease energy consumption by up to 45.2%, while increasing the carbon dioxide concentration from 545 ppm to 655 ppm, while the Particulate Matter and Total Volatile Organic Compounds increase is insignificant.

Download Full-text