Surface dust contamination and perceived indoor environment in office buildings

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of cleaning on indoor environment quality. Surface dust contamination and occupants' perception of the work environment factors and symptoms were the parameters studied. Six multi-floor office buildings were selected. Dust contamination on surfaces was sampled with gelatine foils and quantified using a BM-Dustdetector. Occupants' perceptions of the environment were assessed with modified MM-40 questionnaires. The results indicated that each building had its own surface dust contamination profile. Weekly cleaning maintained the surface dust contamination at the highest acceptable level for indoor environments. The occupants and their activities have a major effect on the level of dust particle contamination on desks. The correlation between the perceived surface dust contamination and the level of satisfaction with cleaning was as expected. Furthermore, surface dust contamination appeared not to be associated with work-related symptoms. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results provide information about current program for contractors and clients, e.g. appropriate cleaning intervals of different surfaces, and the influence of disorder on result. After the evaluation of surface dust contamination levels, it will be possible for cleaning companies to focus on the most important surfaces to clean in order to enhance the quality of the indoor environment in office buildings. This should lead to future development work, which will require cooperation between contractors, clients, and research scientists. In office environments where high cleanliness is required, objective measurements (with instruments) are needed in addition to subjective measurements (the perceptions of occupants). It is essential to evaluate the efficiency of cleaning programs regularly with effective and appropriate quality-monitoring methods.     

Air distribution in office environment with asymmetric workstation layout using chilled beams

Air flow patterns and mean air speeds were studied under laboratory conditions representing a full scale open-plan office. Three basic conditions were tested: summer, spring/autumn and winter. Chilled beams were used to provide cooling, outdoor air supply and air distribution in the room. The heat sources had a notable influence on the flow pattern in the room causing large scale circulation and affecting the direction of inlet jets. The maximum air speed in the occupied zone was higher than the recommendations. The mean air speed was also high on at the floor level but low on at the head level. The air speed was highest in the summer case under high cooling load. Results indicate that especially with high heat loads, it is difficult to fulfill the targets of the existing standards in practice. Two main sources of draught risk were found: a) downfall of colliding inlet jets causing local maxima of air speed and b) large scale circulation caused by asymmetric layout of chilled beams and heat sources. The first phenomenon can cause local draught risk when the workstation is located in the downfall area. The flow pattern is not stable and the position of draught risk areas can change in time and also due to changes in room heat sources. The second phenomenon can cause more constant high air speeds on at the floor level. CFD-simulation was able to predict the general flow pattern but somewhat overestimated the air speed compared to measurements.     

Lighting preferences in office spaces concerning the indoor thermal environment

The accurate prediction of the visual comfort zone in an indoor environment is difficult as it depends on many parameters. This is especially the case for large compact urban areas in which the density and shadow from neighboring buildings can limit the accessible daylighting in indoor spaces. This paper investigates the satisfaction range for illuminance regarding indoor air temperature in office buildings and the significant parameters affecting this range in six office buildings in Tehran, Iran. Lighting comfort has been evaluated by a subjective survey (509 total responses) and field measurement. The questionnaires were filled out in 146 and 109 rooms in summer and winter, respectively. The results show that the illuminance should not be less than 550 lx, while illuminance between 600 and 650 lx provides the highest satisfaction level. The satisfaction with lighting level is affected by individual parameters such as age, type of activity, and environmental parameters such as window orientation, external obscurations, and season. A relationship was observed between lighting level satisfaction and thermal condition acceptance, and the overall comfort depends more on thermal conditions than the lighting level.     

西安某高校学生公寓冬季室内热环境实测分析

以西安某高校学生公寓宿舍作为测试对象,采用现场测试和问卷调查的方法从主观和客观两个方面研究了公寓室内热环境的状况,为今后学生公寓室内热环境的评价和改进提供依据。     

冬季室内热环境与被褥微气候的匹配

冬季睡眠状态下,室内热环境与被褥微气候分别对人体头部和被覆躯体的热感觉造成直接影响。为了分析两个热环境的匹配关系以满足睡眠人体的热舒适水平,实验在不同的室内温度下,调节被褥微气候温度,测试了受试者的皮肤温度,并记录了热感觉和热可接受水平。研究结果表明:睡眠状态下,相比于室内热环境,人体热感觉对被褥微气候更敏感;此外,通过分析室内热环境和被褥微气候分别与整体热感觉和整体不满意率的关系,得到了睡眠热环境舒适区间。     

上海市7幢办公楼室内环境品质评价

对上海市7幢高层办公楼同时进行了室内热环境、空气品质、视环境和听觉环境的现场测试和满意度调查，分析和比较了客观测试和主观调查的结果，对这7幢办公楼的室内环境品质进行了综合评价。     

Comfort of workers in office buildings: The European HOPE project

Previous studies have shown that building, social and personal factors can influence one’s perceived health and comfort. The aim of the underlying study was to get a better understanding of the relationships between these factors and perceived comfort. Self-administered questionnaires from 5732 respondents in 59 office buildings and building-specific data from the European Health Optimisation Protocol for Energy-efficient buildings (HOPE) study were used. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), reliability analyses, and linear regression analysis were performed. The outcome showed that perceived comfort is strongly influenced by several personal, social and building factors and that their relationships are complex. Results showed that perceived comfort is much more than the average of perceived indoor air quality, noise, lighting and thermal comfort responses. Perceived comfort is a phenomenon that deserves more research.     

哈尔滨地区办公建筑夜间机械通风能耗及室内热环境分析

采用EnergyPlus软件对哈尔滨地区典型办公建筑在常规空调系统运行模式与夜间机械通风系统运行模式下的室内热环境和能耗进行了模拟。结果表明,在哈尔滨地区,白天室外最高温度高于24℃时都适合进行夜间机械通风,一共约60d,占空调运行期的72.3%;整个夏季空调运行期内,采用夜间机械通风系统该办公建筑节电量指标为1.15kWh/(m2.a),节省运行费用指标为1.02元/(m2.a);在人工制冷阶段,夜间机械通风模式下的室内热环境明显优于常规空调模式,且房间体积与表面积比越小,越有利于提高室内环境的热舒适性;当室内空气设计温度较高时,室内温度下降大,延迟人工制冷开启时间长,但是节能量未必比室内设计温度较低时高。     

谈舒适健康高效的建筑热环境设计

通过对北京两个不同类型住宅冬季取暖情况的介绍分析，探讨了如何在寒冷地区冬季采暖期实现建筑热环境设计的目标，以期利用最少的能源提供最舒适和健康的环境。     

不同行为方式下人体热感觉与室内环境之关系

对影响人体热舒适度的室内物理参数及瞬态热的影响关系进行了详细分析，并对不同行为方式下人体主观因素进行了阐述，指出设计人员在设计时应考虑诸多因素，不同的行为方式采取不同的设计，以使人体达到热平衡的理想状态。     

办公室内空调系统对舒适度及细菌传播的影响

对上海市某办公室内的气流组织进行了实验测定,用商业软件FLUENT对室内的速度场、温度场、空气龄、人体舒适度进行了数值模拟,模拟结果与实测数据吻合较好。采用离散相模型对室内细菌传播情况进行了模拟分析。     

A global approach of indoor environment in an air-conditioned office room

This study presents a multi-criteria method used for analysing the quality of an air-conditioned indoor environment. Indoor air flow induced by an actual Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning system was experimentally studied under various conditions. The attention was focused on thermal comfort, acoustical comfort and indoor air distribution by considering spatial statistic studies of comfort indices. The compounded electric power of fan, compressor and pumps was measured in order to get information about energy consumption. A first analysis of these parameters showed that indoor comfort cannot be described by a general law. Thus, to reach the objective of a global approach of comfort by a spatial statistical study of the various discomforts, a multi-criteria analysis based on ELECTRE II method adapted to the comfort of air-conditioned indoor environment was applied. In this way the operating rules for coherent air conditioning systems can be defined, with a requirement for quality of indoor environment.     

Comparison of thermal comfort algorithms in naturally ventilated office buildings

With the actual environmental issues of energy savings in buildings, there are more efforts to prevent any increase in energy use associated with installing air-conditioning systems. The actual standard of thermal comfort in buildings ISO 7730 is based on static model that is acceptable in air-conditioned buildings, but unreliable for the case of naturally ventilated buildings. The different field studies have shown that occupants of naturally ventilated buildings accept and prefer a significantly wider range of temperatures compared to occupants of air-conditioned buildings. The results of these field studies have contributed to develop the adaptive approach. Adaptive comfort algorithms have been integrated in EN15251 and ASHRAE standards to take into account the adaptive approach in naturally ventilated buildings. These adaptive algorithms seem to be more efficient for naturally ventilated buildings, but need to be assessed in field studies. This paper evaluates different algorithms from both static and adaptive approach in naturally ventilated buildings across a field survey that has been conducted in France in five naturally ventilated office buildings. The paper presents the methodology guidelines, and the thermal comfort algorithms considered. The results of application of different algorithms are provided with a comparative analysis to assess the applied algorithms.     

Energy use and thermal comfort in a rammed earth office building

A two-storey rammed earth building was built on the Thurgoona Campus of Charles Sturt University in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, in 1999. The building is novel both in the use of materials and equipment for heating and cooling. The climate at Wodonga can be characterised as hot and dry, so the challenge of providing comfortable working conditions with minimal energy consumption is considerable. This paper describes an evaluation of the building in terms of measured thermal comfort and energy use. Measurements, confirmed by a staff questionnaire, found the building was too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Comparison with another office building in the same location found that the rammed earth building used more energy for heating. The thermal performance of three offices in the rammed earth building was investigated further using simulation to predict office temperatures. Comparisons were made with measurements made over typical weeks in summer and winter. The validated model has been used to investigate key building parameters and strategies to improve the thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption in the building. Simulations showed that improvements could be made by design and control strategy changes.     

办公楼室内环境品质控制与优化

室内办公环境品质直接影响办公室中人员的工作效率和健康,需要进行有效地控制和优化,以保证其舒适性、低能耗和健康的要求。以某办公室为对象,研究了室内环境品质各参数和控制量之间的关系,建立了室内环境品质双线性模型。利用实验数据进行了模型验证,结果表明:模型输出能较好拟合实际情况;并基于模型预测方法进行室内环境品质控制,通过夏季工况仿真实验证明了提出方法比传统控制方式具有更小的稳态误差和较小的超调性,且更加节能。     

Comparison of underfloor and overhead air distribution systems in an office environment

This study compares thermal environment of two air distribution systems in an office setting. Airflow, heat and mass (water vapor and contaminant gas) transfer in steady-state condition are modeled for an underfloor air distribution system and an overhead air distribution system. The models include a typical cubicle in a large office floor with a chair, a desk with a personal computer on top, and heat sources such as seated person, desktop computer, and lights. For underfloor air distribution system, cool air enters the occupied zone through an inlet located at the floor level supplying a vertical upward inflow. Three different locations of the inlet diffuser are considered. For overhead air distribution, the inlet is located on the ceiling with slower and cooler inflow. Three inlet angles are considered. For both systems, the air return location is on the ceiling at the same place. Distributions of velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and contaminant concentration in various cases for both systems are computed. Thermal comfort factors are assessed for the two systems. The results are compared among cases of each system, as well as between two typical cases of the two systems and to experimental data for an actual office building given in literature. The results provide a detailed understanding of air transport and its consequence on thermal comfort and indoor air quality that are useful for office building air conditioner design. It is found that underfloor system gives better performance than overhead system in contaminant removal and significantly in energy saving while maintaining the same thermal comfort condition.     

Verification of a CFD model for indoor airflow and heat transfer

The SST k–ω based model is applied to calculate air-flow velocities and temperatures in a model office room. Calculations are compared with experiments and with the results of the standard k–ε, the RNG k–ε model and the laminar model. It is concluded that (a) all the three tested turbulent models predict satisfactorily the main qualitative features of the flow and the layered type of temperature fields and (b) computations with the SST k–ω based model show the best agreement with measurements. The use of this model is proposed combined with a suitable grid.     

Passive environment control system of Kerala vernacular residential architecture for a comfortable indoor environment: A qualitative and quantitative analyses

The modern day practice does not give due respect to passive and natural environment control measures in buildings. With modern materials and technology, the buildings of present architectural style results in high energy consumption, in an attempt to provide thermal comfort indoors. The vernacular architecture at any place on the other hand has evolved through ages by consistent and continuous effort for more efficient and perfect solutions. The authors have conducted a qualitative analysis of the passive environment control system of vernacular residential architecture of Kerala that is known for ages for its use of natural and passive methods for a comfortable indoor environment. The orientation of building, internal arrangement of spaces, the presence of internal courtyard, use of locally available materials and special methods of construction, etc. have together created the indoor environment. A quantitative analysis was also carried out based on field experiments by recording thermal comfort parameters in a selected building. The study has provided positive results confirming that the passive environment control system employed in Kerala vernacular architecture is highly effective in providing thermal comfort indoors in all seasons.     

Optimization of ventilation system design and operation in office environment,Part I: Methodology

Ventilation principles that integrate flexible and responsive elements have grown in popularity in office buildings due to increasing concerns about the impact of indoor environment quality on office workers' well-being and productivity, as well as concerns over the rising energy costs for space heating and cooling in the office building sector. Such advanced elements as underfloor air distribution (UFAD), passive swirl diffusers, and demand controlled ventilation have posed challenges to system design and operation. This paper is concerned with the development and implementation of a practical and robust optimization scheme, aiming to assist office building designers and operators to enhance thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) without sacrificing energy costs of ventilation. The objective function was constructed in a way attempting to aggregate and weight indices (for thermal comfort, IAQ, and ventilation energy usage assessment) into one indicator. The path taken was a simulation-based optimization approach by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques in conjunction with genetic algorithm (GA), with the integration of an artificial neural network (ANN) for response surface approximation (RSA) and for speeding up fitness evaluations inside GA loop.     

Long-term field survey on thermal adaptation in office buildings in Japan

A long-term field survey was conducted with six buildings in order to investigate how the occupants adapt to the indoor climate in office buildings in Japan. More than 5000 questionnaires and corresponding indoor temperatures were collected. Clothing adjustment was observed to be related to outdoor temperature and indoor temperature, as well as dress codes. No considerable differences were found on the thermal perceptions between two groups of buildings, which provided different levels of opportunity for controlling indoor climate. With both groups, the preferred SET* was always close to 26 °C. The comfort temperature was estimated from the results of clothing adjustment and the preferred SET*. The gradient of the comfort temperature to outdoor temperature was found to be between the adaptive model for centralized HVAC and for natural ventilation. It could be caused by that the major part of the occupants in the present study had more opportunity to control their thermal conditions than in the centralized HVAC buildings (i.e. operable windows, controllable HVAC or personal fans).