Indoor environmental quality: review of parameters and assessment models

Abstract

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is becoming a key aspect considering the building envelope and occupants' health. A lot of energy is consumed to achieve the satisfactory IEQ in the building. The main challenge for the building designer is to enhance the IEQ with the minimum energy consumption. The present paper investigates the contributing parameters and different assessment models for IEQ. The presented study will be helpful to analyse multi-functional parametric comfort and in turn will help to improve the occupant's health. IntroductionThe major purpose of buildings is to provide a healthy and comfortable environment for occupants. In most parts of the world, people spend more than 90% of the day in indoors. The indoor environment results from the interaction of the site, the climate, the building system, and the building occupants. The number of related complaints has increased in recent years with increased building tightness, growing use of materials that consume natural resources, and increase in energy use to achieve indoor comfort. The comfort of an indoor environment is very much affected by weather elements. Comfort is a way of measuring occupant's satisfaction which in turn can directly affect health and productivity.Globally, with the rapid growth in urbanization and increase in the number of dwelling units, achieving the comfort of an indoor environment by natural means is a major challenge to the designers. Today's building industry is minimizing a different kind of footprint: the energy, carbon, and environmental footprint of buildings. The aim in the building's design or renovation phase should include improvement of the building's energy efficiency and reduction in environmental impact of the building. Optimal energy management in the building sector is the key factor in energy conservation. Due to the importance of good quality of the indoor environment and the problems caused by high energy consumption, various government agencies have enacted a series of policies and regulations aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of dwellings and ensuring a good indoor environment. The building designers have a challenge to achieve the indoor comfort with the least energy requirement. In order to investigate the aspect of indoor environmental quality (IEQ), data collection methods for

Continuous IEQ monitoring system: Context and development

“…Although scientific evidence supporting the IEQ-productivity nexus is highly contentious due to the complications surrounding dependent variables like cognitive performance (e.g. de Dear et al, 2013;Altomonte & Schiavon, 2013), there seems little doubt that more satisfied building occupants with higher levels of wellbeing generally translate into better outcomes for the organizations leasing the building (Newsham et al, 2008;Sakhare & Ralegaonkar, 2014). Nowhere has the growth in IEQ interest been more often referred to as Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE), collects qualitative data on occupants' subjective evaluations of the indoor environment of their workplace (Nicol & Roaf, 2005).…”

Introductory Chapter: Indoor Environmental Quality

“…A huge number of literatures are available on the research on various aspects of IEQ , and a comprehensive review of these literatures is beyond the scope of this chapter. Many researchers have compiled them in their review articles [7,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. However, a brief overview of the exemplary researches is presented here.…”

Translating across Disciplines: On Coding Interior Architecture Theory to Advance Complex Indoor Environment Quality

“…Indoor environment quality ranges from a precise definition of thermal, acoustic, visual, and air quality measures [10] through to wider interpretations that include other human factors, such as control and size of space [11]. IEQ is also sometimes conflated with post occupancy evaluation (POE) [12] (Table 14.1, p. 172).…”