Combating overheating: mixed-mode conditioning for workplace comfort

Abstract

Using post-occupancy evaluations of seven mixed-mode buildings -three in Australia and four in India -this paper demonstrates that effective mixed-mode conditioning (instead of year-round airconditioning) can deliver comfortable workspaces. Occupant feedback reinforces strong associations between overheating, thermal comfort, overall comfort and perceived productivity. However, differing levels of thermal acceptability within and between the Australian and Indian contexts are evident. Occupants in the Indian buildings were found to tolerate a wider range of temperatures when compared with Western contexts where lower temperature limits entrench an energy demand through a greater reliance on air-conditioning. The outcomes from the study suggest that the perception of overheating and consequent risk to building performance can be intensified when occupants perceive limited adaptive opportunity or problems are not rectified quickly, whereas perceived control is less important where building systems are user responsive. Occupants in three of the study buildings also perceived higher-than-anticipated comfort which could be attributable to well-liked attributes, such as break-out spaces, daylight and fresh air included in these buildings. The findings challenge designers and clients to develop userresponsive climate interactive workplaces that capitalize on spatial and mixed-mode environmental control to tackle the question of overheating.

Modelling the overheating risk in an uniform high-rise building design with a consideration of urban context and heatwaves

“…A recent study shows that enabling user response in mixed-mode buildings leads to a greater capacity to respond to overheating. 19 Modes of operation are dependent on design choices, and the high levels of glazing incorporated in to the high-rise vernacular makes shading and glazing thermal properties key passive measures for alleviating risk to overheating. The application of such measures, however, is not straightforward.…”

Embedding building performance evaluation in UK architectural practice and beyond

“…There are various research initiatives concerning POE on other continents including: Russia (Strelets et al, 2016) China (Li, Ng, & Skitmore, 2018;Zhu & Wu, 2013) Brazil ( Ornstein, Villa, & Ono, 2011;. Ornstein & Ono, 2010) Africa (Adewunmi, Omirin, Famuyiwa, & Farinloye, 2011) and India (Steemers & Manchanda, 2010;Thomas, 2017). But again there are no mandatory requirements in these continents for doing a POE once a building is completed.…”

Customized performance evaluation approach for Indian green buildings

“…A review of the literature to identify the methods and tools for studying actual building performance in India reveals two discrete sets of studies: one on field studies of thermal comfort (FSTC) and the other on POE/BPE. The FSTC differs from the BPE in that it is concerned with the occupant's immediate response to a building, referred to as 'right here, right now' surveys (Kumar, Mathur, Mathur, Singh, & Loftness, 2016;Thomas, 2017), and measurements taken in relation to that response (Nicol & Roaf, 2005) involving spot readings of environmental variables. POE studies, on the other hand, gather a long-range memory of the occupant's response to the indoor environment for a glimpse of the building's performance (Nicol & Roaf, 2005) and to answer certain questions such as: Is the building performing as intended?…”