Occupants' satisfaction toward indoor environment quality of platinum green-certified office buildings in tropical climate
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2021
Abstract
The quality of the indoor environment has become a vital component for buildings due to the time spent indoors. To this extent, the performance of the indoor environment is considered as part of the greenery criteria by green rating schemes such as the Green Building Index in Malaysia. This study aims to investigate and assess the quality of the indoor environment of Platinum-certified office buildings in a tropical climate. This research applied a case study approach over two Platinum-certified office buildings. Post-occupancy evaluation is employed integrating full-scale measurement with an occupants' survey. The measurement was carried out from May to August, and 112 questionnaires were retrieved to evaluate occupants' satisfaction with aspects of the indoor environment. Thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic, lighting, furniture, and cleanliness are considered as the main study variables. The findings of full-scale measurement indicated high relative humidity, and low air velocity and illuminance. While occupants reported overall indoor environment quality (IEQ) comfort, a significant correlation of variables was observed. The main sources of dissatisfaction were identified as overcooling around 24 degrees C, high relative humidity (RH), around 70% RH, glare, and background noise around 51.9 dB. Statistically, a significant difference between occupants' responses to IEQ of two cases was identified, although both buildings are labelled with a Platinum certificate.
Keywords
Building performance assessment, Indoor environment quality, Occupants, Satisfaction, Post-occupancy evaluation, Green Building Index, Tropical climate
Divisions
BuiltEnvironment
Funders
University Malaya Research Fund Assistance (BKP) [Grant No: BK061-2015]
Publication Title
Energies
Volume
14
Issue
8
Publisher
MDPI
Publisher Location
ST ALBAN-ANLAGE 66, CH-4052 BASEL, SWITZERLAND