Occupants’ Satisfaction Toward Indoor Environment Quality of Platinum Green-Certified Office Buildings in Tropical Climate

Occupants’ Satisfaction Toward Indoor Environment Quality of Platinum Green-Certified Office Buildings in Tropical Climate

Esfandiari, Masoud (Shahid Beheshti University; University of Malaya)
Zaid, Suzaini Mohamed (University of Malaya)
Ismail, Muhammad Azzam (University of Malaya)
Hafezi, Mohammad Reza (Shahid Beheshti University)
Asadi, Iman (University of Tehran)
Mohammadi, S. (TU Delft Building Services; University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj)
Vaisi, Salah (University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj)
Aflaki, Ardalan (University of Guilan)

2021

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 °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.

Building performance assessment
Green Building Index
Indoor environment quality
Occupants’ satisfaction
Post-occupancy evaluation
Tropical climate

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:137f07ab-d189-438b-bea2-90156abbc8f8

https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082264

1996-1073

Energies, 14 (8)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2021 Masoud Esfandiari, Suzaini Mohamed Zaid, Muhammad Azzam Ismail, Mohammad Reza Hafezi, Iman Asadi, S. Mohammadi, Salah Vaisi, Ardalan Aflaki