scholarly journals Building performance evaluation: Balancing energy and indoor environmental quality in a UK school building

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nishesh Jain ◽  
Esfand Burman ◽  
Craig Robertson ◽  
Samuel Stamp ◽  
Clive Shrubsole ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Performance Gap

There is a policy-driven focus, at present, on improving the energy performance of buildings. However, energy-related issues alone do not capture the full impact of buildings on occupants and the wider environment. The performance of a building also includes occupant wellbeing and indoor environmental quality. Specifically, in schools, indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics) is an important aspect. Additionally, the issue of the ‘performance gap’, generally focused on energy, also affects indoor environmental quality parameters and needs to be addressed holistically. This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of energy, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between energy and indoor environmental quality in a recently built school campus in London. Based on the evidence collated from this case study and supplementary literature, the endemic issues and constraints within the construction industry are explored, such as inappropriate design calculations and resistance to new low-carbon technologies. Further, lessons for improved performance in the design, operation and maintenance of schools are highlighted such as factoring in the changing building use trends during design and the significance of optimal operations and maintenance of building systems for better energy and indoor environmental quality performance. This study shows that if the building design focus primarily remains on energy, unintended consequence of indoor environmental quality underperformance may occur where there are conflicts between energy and indoor environmental quality objectives. An integrated approach to building performance can help address this issue. Practical application: There are often conflicts between energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) objectives in building design and operation. Most building performance evaluations are primarily focused on one set of these performance criteria. This building performance evaluation was done with an integrated energy and IEQ perspective. The study identifies the causes of underperformance in energy and IEQ in a recently built school in London. Some of the findings from this study provide lessons that are relevant across the industry for the delivery of low-carbon and healthy buildings. These lessons include methods to further strengthen the policy frameworks and design protocols along with overall improvements in the processes followed during design, construction and operation of schools and other non-domestic buildings. The paper can also inform building designers, contractors and facility managers about the ways to reduce the performance gap and achieve energy targets without unintended consequences for indoor environment.

scholarly journals Building Performance Evaluation of a New Hospital Building in the UK: Balancing Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Performance

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Nishesh Jain ◽  
Esfand Burman ◽  
Samuel Stamp ◽  
Clive Shrubsole ◽  
Roderic Bunn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Building Performance ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality

Hospitals are controlled yet complex ecosystems which provide a therapeutic environment that promotes healing, wellbeing and work efficiency for patients and staff. As these buildings accommodate the sick and vulnerable, occupant wellbeing and good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) that deals with indoor air quality (IAQ), thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics are important objectives. As the specialist nature of hospital function demands highly controlled indoor environments, this makes them energy intensive buildings due to the complex and varying specifications for their functions and operations. This paper reports on a holistic building performance evaluation covering aspects of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, acoustics, and energy use. It assesses the performance issues and inter-relationships between IEQ and energy in a new building on a hospital campus in the city of Bristol, United Kingdom. The empirical evidence collated from this case study and the feedback received from the hospital staff help identify the endemic issues and constraints related to hospital buildings, such as the need for robust ventilation strategies in hospitals in urban areas that mitigate the effect of indoor and outdoor air pollution and ensuring the use of planned new low-carbon technologies. Whilst the existing guidelines for building design provide useful instructions for the protection of hospital buildings against ingress of particulate matter from outdoors, more advanced filtration strategies may be required to enact chemical reactions required to control the concentration levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and benzene. Further lessons for improved performance in operation and maintenance of hospitals are highlighted. These include ensuring that the increasingly available metering and monitoring data in new buildings, through building management systems, is used for efficient and optimal building operations for better IEQ and energy management. Overall, the study highlights the need for an integrated and holistic approach to building performance to ensure that healthy environments are provided while energy efficiency targets are met.

scholarly journals Effects of Climatic Conditions, Season and Environmental Factors on CO2 Concentrations in Naturally Ventilated Primary Schools in Chile

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4139
Author(s):  
Muriel Diaz ◽  
Mario Cools ◽  
Maureen Trebilcock ◽  
Beatriz Piderit-Moreno ◽  
Shady Attia
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Co2 Concentration ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Co2 Concentrations ◽  
The Impact

Between the ages of 6 and 18, children spend between 30 and 42 h a week at school, mostly indoors, where indoor environmental quality is usually deficient and does not favor learning. The difficulty of delivering indoor air quality (IAQ) in learning facilities is related to high occupancy rates and low interaction levels with windows. In non-industrialized countries, as in the cases presented, most classrooms have no mechanical ventilation, due to energy poverty and lack of normative requirements. This fact heavily impacts the indoor air quality and students’ learning outcomes. The aim of the paper is to identify the factors that determine acceptable CO2 concentrations. Therefore, it studies air quality in free-running and naturally ventilated primary schools in Chile, aiming to identify the impact of contextual, occupant, and building design factors, using CO2 concentration as a proxy for IAQ. The monitoring of CO2, temperature, and humidity revealed that indoor air CO2 concentration is above 1400 ppm most of the time, with peaks of 5000 ppm during the day, especially in winter. The statistical analysis indicates that CO2 is dependent on climate, seasonality, and indoor temperature, while it is independent of outside temperature in heated classrooms. The odds of having acceptable concentrations of CO2 are bigger when indoor temperatures are high, and there is a need to ventilate for cooling.

AN EVALUATION OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND OCCUPANT WELL-BEING IN MANITOBA SCHOOL BUILDINGS

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Radwan ◽  
Mohamed H. Issa
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Well Being ◽  
School Buildings ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Green School

This exploratory research aims to evaluate indoor environmental quality in the classrooms of three school buildings in Southern Manitoba, Canada, and to evaluate the well-being of these schools' teachers as it pertains to their perception of their classrooms' indoor environment. The schools include a middle-aged, conventional school; a new, non-green school; and a new, green school certified using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system. The methodology involved using a mobile instrument cart to conduct snapshot measurements of thermal comfort, indoor air quality, lighting and acoustics in classrooms and an occupant survey to evaluate teachers' long-term satisfaction with their classrooms' indoor environmental quality. The results showed that the new, green and new, non-green schools' classrooms performed better than the conventional, middle-aged school's classrooms with respect to some aspects of thermal comfort and indoor air quality only. Teachers in the new, green school and in the new, non-green school were more satisfied than teachers in the conventional, middle-aged school with their classrooms' overall indoor environmental quality, lighting quality and indoor air quality. Surprisingly, the new, green and new-non green school classrooms' performance were very comparable with the new, green school's classrooms performing statistically significantly better with respect to relative humidity. Similarly, none of the differences in teachers' satisfaction ratings between the new, green and new, non-green school were statistically significant.

POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION (POE) OF CONVENTIONAL-DESIGNED BUILDINGS: THE EFFECTS OF OCCUAPNTS’ COMFORT ON PRODUCTIVITY

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farid-Wajdi Akashah ◽  
Azlan Shah Ali ◽  
Siti Fatunah Mohd Zahari
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Post Occupancy Evaluation ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Spss Software

POE is important to evaluate comfort level and satisfaction of building occupants because it indicates their productivity, health, and wellbeing. It is absolutely necessary to ensure building occupants are comfortable and satisfied about buildings’ indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Productivity may be interrupted due to building occupants’ discomfort, which affect their work performance. This study presents the how comfort and satisfaction affects the occupants’ productivity in conventional-designed buildings. Five office buildings located in University of Malaya were selected as the case studies. 278 questionnaires feedbacks found to be useful to form a database on the IEQ. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS software. The findings shows that majority of the respondents in conventional-designed building were slightly comfortable and satisfied about their IEQ comfort level which were indoor air quality, thermal, lighting, and noise comforts. Although, the design of conventional buildings did not taking into account on sustainability designing, it still functionally well and provided comfort which leads to increasing of employees productivity. The associative test showed significant correlation between illness symptom and IEQ components. Admin buildings had more noticeable illness symptoms in contrast with Faculty buildings. It could be concluded that building occupants’ productivity were least affected by the conventional-design building.  

scholarly journals Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality after a Partially Energy-efficient Renovation of a Prefabricated Concrete Kindergarten Constructed in 1980’s in Slovenia

Prostor ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2 (60)) ◽  
pp. 346-359
Author(s):  
Vesna Lovec ◽  
Miroslav Premrov ◽  
Vesna Žegarac Leskovar
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Energy Efficient ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Technical Issue ◽  
Current Case

The majority of kindergartens situated in the territory of former Yugoslavia need renovation. Apart from their enhanced energy efficiency, renovated buildings will presumably offer better indoor environmental quality. According to the current case study, children using a classroom with new windows installed are exposed to substantially poorer indoor air quality due to airtightness and improper ventilation, which calls attention to a vital technical issue of the current renovation process.

scholarly journals Numerical Study on Indoor Environmental Quality in a Room Equipped with a Combined HRV and Radiator System

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10576
Author(s):  
Aminhossein Jahanbin ◽  
Giovanni Semprini
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Gaseous Contaminants

Heat recovery ventilation (HRV) systems can be integrated with an additional air heater in buildings with low energy demand in order to cover space heating demand. The employment of coupled HRV-heater systems is, therefore, gaining increasing interest for the improvement of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ), as well as the reduction of ventilation energy loss. The present paper analyses the efficacy of a HRV system, coupled with a low-temperature radiator, in satisfying the IEQ indices inside a retrofitted dormitory room. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model based on the finite volume method is established to investigate IEQ characteristics including indoor air quality and thermal comfort condition. The presented CFD code provides a practical tool for a comprehensive investigation of the IEQ indices in spaces employing a coupled HVAC system. In an analysis of indoor air quality, parameters such as age of the air, air change efficiency, and ventilation efficiency in removal of gaseous contaminants, namely VOCs and CO2, are evaluated. The results obtained by the numerical model allow addressing the interaction between HRV and radiator systems and its effects on airflow field. The results show the decrease of the indoor operative temperature with increment of the supply air flow rate, which is mainly due to the decreased thermal efficiency of the HRV system. The obtained results indicate that, while higher ventilation rates can significantly decrease the age of the air and gaseous contaminants level, at the same time, it would cause a local discomfort in some parts of the room.

ALTERNATIVE TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.A.S.L. Sumanasekara ◽  
C. Jayasinghe
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Air Purification ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Chamber Study ◽  
Alternative Techniques ◽  
Material Substances

Most of the time people stay in confined environments and thus are highly exposed to accumulated indoor pollutants. Indoor environmental pollution has been identified as one of the most prevalent causes for health problems, such as sick building syndrome. These health problems have been magnified with the introduction of energy efficient building concepts, coupled with limited fresh air supply, which has compromised the effective means of air purification. Further, the frequent use of chemical substances for numerous purposes contributes to indoor air pollution. Therefore, investigation of alternative techniques to improve indoor environmental quality has been extensively studied in the last two decades. In Sri Lanka, there is a potential for studying indigenous techniques to improve indoor air quality. However, verification of such techniques and quantification of their impacts has not been given much attention. The research focus of this paper is to identify those material substances that can be used to absorb pollutants and lessen their harmful impacts and thereby improve air purification. A chamber study was used to quantify air purification using different material substances and considering the following parameters: total volatile organic compound (TVOC) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels. Further, the results obtained in the chamber study were assessed for its projection to real applications by comparison with a study conducted in an actual indoor space. The outcome of the study has revealed that the indigenous knowledge of Sri Lanka can be used to improve indoor air quality.

scholarly journals Association between Human Health and Indoor Air Pollution in Saudi Arabia: Indoor Environmental Quality Survey

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-66
Author(s):  
Mohd Saleem ◽  
Mohd Adnan Kausar ◽  
Fahmida Khatoon ◽  
Sadaf Anwar ◽  
Syed Monowar Alam Shahid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Indoor Air Pollution ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Common Symptom ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality

In many aspects of life quality, bio-contaminants and indoor air quality have had catastrophic consequences, including a negative impact on human health with an increased prevalence of allergic respiratory reactions, asthma, and infectious diseases. We aimed to evaluate the quality of indoor air environment and find out the association between human health and indoor air pollution and also to assess the physical health status of a group of Saudi and non-Saudi populations during this pandemic. Also, we aimed to assess the most common health condition or symptoms associated with ventilation. A questionnaire was distributed online to test indoor air quality, ventilation status, common signs and symptoms of any allergy or mental status and their relationship to certain variables. A total of 362 respondents were included. Before living in the current home, flu or Influenza and chapped lips were more prevalent than allergies and chapped lips signs while living in the current home. (12.2% , 10.8% vs. 18.5% , 13.55% before and after respectively) Multiple colds were the second most common symptom (10.2%). Hoarse voice and headaches were the least common symptoms experienced; each constituted 4.4%. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, most respondents wore a facemask, approximately 76.5%; and almost one-third of respondents had bright natural light inside the current home (43.1%). The presence of natural light within the current home was significantly associated with symptoms experienced during living in the current house (p<0.05). Natural sunlight exposure could decrease allergic symptoms and minor health problems associated with poor ventilation and air quality indoors. In current living homes, the majority of respondents never used air purifiers (72.9 percent). In order to get attention from people to enhance the quality and ventilation mechanism of indoor air, special care and awareness of the effects of the use of air purifiers on human health is needed.

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