Comparative Analysis of Indoor Environmental Quality and Self-Reported Productivity in Intelligent and Traditional Buildings

Abstract

People tend to spend considerable amounts of time in buildings; thus the issue of providing proper indoor environmental quality is of significant importance. This paper experimentally analyses the subjective sensations of the occupants of intelligent and traditional buildings with the focus on possible differences between these two types of buildings. The study is based on a large database of 1302 questionnaires collected in 92 rooms where simultaneous measurements of the indoor environment physical parameters (air and globe temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and illuminance) were carried out. Their impact on the subjective assessment of the indoor environment has been presented and analysed. The results show that the occupants seemed to be more favourable towards the indoor conditions in the intelligent building; however, the differences in comparison to the traditional buildings were not considerable. Similarly, self-reported productivity proved to be higher in the intelligent building, while the optimal range of air temperature, which ensured highest productivity, was 22–25 °C. Moreover, a strong correlation between the occupants’ overall comfort and their perception of the air quality has been found.

Comparative Analysis of Subjective Indoor Environment Assessment in Actual and Simulated Conditions

“…Figure 3 presents the distribution of the votes (as the frequency count) for the climate chamber and for the educational rooms. The data regarding the educational rooms have been analysed by the authors in [56] separately for the intelligent and traditional buildings. The majority of the respondents (in both environments) felt fine and marked the "neutral" or "good/very good" answers.…”

“…Figure 6 presents the dependence between the mean values of the subjective assessment of air quality (Indoor Air Quality Vote-IAQV) in the rooms and the overall comfort experienced by the people in these rooms (also as mean values of the answers provided in the questionnaires). The data regarding the educational rooms have been analysed by the authors in [56]; however, they have the addition of a distinction regarding the type of building. The obtained linear correlations for the data recorded in the climate chamber (subscript "1") and the educational rooms (subscript "2") are quite strong and the equations take the following form:…”

A New Approach to the Economic Evaluation of Thermomodernization: Annual Assessment Based on the Example of Production Space

“…An analysis of the literature clearly indicates that thermal modernization activities bring economic benefits, social benefits, environmental benefits and benefits for the energy system. There is even evidence for modernizing a building to a passive and nearly zero energy building standard [23][24][25].…”