Assessment of Air Quality Perception and Its Effects on Users’ Thermal Comfort in Office Buildings

Abstract

Since people spend most of their time in indoor environments, the objective of this work was to study indoor air quality and its effects on users’ thermal comfort. Based on previous data from a building with a central air-conditioning system and two mixed-mode buildings located in the humid subtropical climate of Florianópolis, southern Brazil, statistical analyses were performed. Each user’s subjective answer obtained through a questionnaire was combined with the corresponding environmental conditions measured by instruments. Results showed that improvement in air quality was associated with the reduction of air temperature and humidity ratio. Also, there was a significant influence of thermal and humidity sensation on air quality satisfaction. Users felt more satisfied or neutral with air quality for being in thermal comfort, and not because of the CO2 concentration—which means that air quality perception is influenced by factors other than CO2. This study recommends implementing an air exchange device in split air-conditioners with air recirculation commonly used in mixed-mode buildings in Brazil. It is important to provide suitable indoor ventilation to reduce pollutant concentration, ensure good air quality and prevent respiratory diseases.

Indoor Air Quality Assessment via Experimentally Calibrated Dynamic Simulation: A Case Study in an Office Building in Panama

“…One of the points of interest in this study was to identify how having a split unit to condition a space, can affect the air quality of the occupants. As observed in the study by Rasli et al [6] and Oliviera et al [10], while the split unit is operating inside the office, there was no air exchange registered, as shown in Fig. 4.…”

“…Central heating, ventilation and conditioning systems, introduces outdoor air into indoor spaces but split units depends mainly on recirculated air that has gone through filters [6] and certainly, in spaces where split units are implemented, there is no mechanical ventilation system for air renovation [9]. Oliveira, Rupp & Ghisi, recommended implementing an air Digital Object Identifier (DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.18687/LACCEI2022.1.1.440 ISBN: 978-628-95207-0-5 ISSN: 2414-6390 exchange device when using split air-conditioner devices, to provide suitable indoor ventilation an d red u ce p o llu t an t concentration [10]. Due split units don't provide an air change rate, this may have an impact over IAQ, in other words, rising pollutant concentration.…”

An Environmental Quality Assessment of Office Buildings: The Impact of a Glass Façade on Users in Different Climate Contexts in Croatia

“…The field of office glass façade energy efficiency research [3,4,8,9,19,[42][43][44][45][46][47] and indoor environmental quality [6,15,16,[18][19][20][21][22][23]27,28,[30][31][32][33]35,36,38,39,41,45,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54] is extensive. Numerous studies focus on the combination of the research into the energy efficiency of a façade and its impact on user comfort in certain climate contexts [3,5,7,8,12,18,26,28,34,55,56].…”