scholarly journals Developing An Evaluation Protocol For The Toronto Public Library (TPL) System Through The Application Of A Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) Of A Branch Library To Inform Its Retrofit Strategy

Author(s):  
Rosemary Martin

Buildings play a significant role in our economy and society. Substantial capital is invested in buildings, and they are the locales where a large portion (e.g., work, cultural, religious, social and personal activities) of our lives are conducted. Despite the significant monetary and temporal investments in buildings, building performance evaluations (BPEs) are not standard practice. From BPEs that have been conducted, important findings have been identified. Significant gaps frequently exist between the design intent of buildings and their measured performance (e.g., energy and water consumption) and user satisfaction (e.g., thermal comfort, lighting, noise). Environmental (e.g., resource consumption) and economic drivers (e.g., productivity, operational costs) are spurring the growth of BPEs. A BPE was conducted of the Weston Public Library (WPL) with the intent of informing a retrofit strategy and developing a protocol for conducting BPEs in the Toronto Public Library (TPL) system.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Martin

Buildings play a significant role in our economy and society. Substantial capital is invested in buildings, and they are the locales where a large portion (e.g., work, cultural, religious, social and personal activities) of our lives are conducted. Despite the significant monetary and temporal investments in buildings, building performance evaluations (BPEs) are not standard practice. From BPEs that have been conducted, important findings have been identified. Significant gaps frequently exist between the design intent of buildings and their measured performance (e.g., energy and water consumption) and user satisfaction (e.g., thermal comfort, lighting, noise). Environmental (e.g., resource consumption) and economic drivers (e.g., productivity, operational costs) are spurring the growth of BPEs. A BPE was conducted of the Weston Public Library (WPL) with the intent of informing a retrofit strategy and developing a protocol for conducting BPEs in the Toronto Public Library (TPL) system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 691-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Gupta ◽  
M Kapsali ◽  
M Gregg

This paper uses a forensic building performance evaluation approach to undertake a comparative evaluation of the in-use energy and environmental performance data (collected over two years) of two civic buildings located in Southeast England – a small community centre (<1000 m2) and a medium-sized public library building (∼4500 m2), which are designed to high sustainability standards (EPC A rating) and low heating demand met by on-site low/zero carbon technologies. Although both buildings achieved measured air-permeability rates of ∼5 m3/h.m2, they encountered similar issues related to poor documentation of ‘as-built’ drawings, poor handover and guidance, problems with integrating and maintaining new technologies (heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar thermal), lack of calibration of sub-meters, and issues with automatic window controls. However, the actual annual energy use of the community centre is similar to the design prediction, while it is almost double the prediction in the case of the library building. This is because the community centre management team overcame some of the issues through their continuous engagement and interest in the building’s performance, whereas the management team of the Library building failed to engage with energy management, resulting in disuse of the biomass boiler and solar thermal system. Practical application: Comparative building performance evaluation (BPE) systematically reveals the similarities and differences in the actual energy and environmental performance of two ‘sustainable’ civic buildings. Careful management of heating and electricity loads, good occupant control over the indoor environment and high performance of low-carbon technologies in the Community Centre results in the building performing better than good practice benchmark. Regular changes in facility management (FM) staff result in inadequate energy management and control over heating, ventilation and lighting, that undermines occupant comfort and leads to excessive energy use in the library building. For civic buildings to perform as designed, it is vital that metering, sub-metering and controls are set up, commissioned and used properly by the FM team. Design teams should ensure that easy-to-understand user guides are made available before handover for FM and occupants.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Nishesh Jain ◽  
Esfand Burman ◽  
Samuel Stamp ◽  
Clive Shrubsole ◽  
Roderic Bunn ◽  
...  

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Ke ◽  
Qing Zheng ◽  
Faming Wang ◽  
Min Wang ◽  
Yi Wang

Abstract The design of workwear has significant effects on worker performance. However, the current workwear for coal miners in Northern China is poor in fitness and thermal comfort. In this study, new workwear (NEW) for coal miners was developed with the design features providing better cold protection and movement comfort performance, as compared with a commonly worn workwear (CON). To evaluate the effectiveness of NEW, we conducted human trials which were performed using simulated work movements (i.e., sitting, shoveling, squatting, and crawling) in a climate chamber (10°C, 75% RH). Physiological measurements and perceptual responses were obtained. The results demonstrated that the local skin temperatures at chest, scapula, thigh, and calf; mean skin temperatures,; and thermal comfort in NEW were significantly higher than those in CON. NEW also exerted an improvement in enhancing movement comfort. We conclude that NEW could meet well with the cold protective and mobility requirements.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Nicolle Christine Sotsek ◽  
Drielle Sanchez Leitner ◽  
Adriana de Paula Lacerda Santos

O objetivo deste artigo é fornecer, por meio de uma revisão sistemática da literatura focada no controle de qualidade das edificações, um banco de dados para apresentar os critérios mais utilizados pelo Building Performance Evaluation (BPE). Mediante a esta revisão, 782 artigos foram identificados, dos quais 15 foram selecionados considerando aderência do tema a pesquisa e período de publicação. As principais informações sobre os artigos, seus autores e revistas foram debatidas. Os critérios de desempenho compilados pelos artigos analisados utilizaram como base: a literatura, questionários e entrevistas com usuários e profissionais da área, consulta a especialistas do segmento e visitas técnicas as edificações. Com tais critérios identificados foi possível definir 9 dimensões de análise que são apresentadas e discutidas neste documento.


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