Grey preference analysis of indoor environmental factors using sub-indexes based on Weber/Fechner's law and predicted mean vote

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the influences of environmental parameters on common health symptoms in office buildings. A grey preference analysis based on a new indoor environment quality (IEQ) index and a controlled field survey of 91 office occupants were conducted in an office building in Guangzhou, China. The new IEQ index based on Weber/Fechner's law and predicted mean vote (PMV) was developed and validated by our survey. In the survey, the six environmental parameters (air temperature, illumination intensity, noise level, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde and PM 10 ) were measured. The subjects' satisfaction levels and the nine health symptoms (eye dryness, lethargy, dry throat, headache, nausea, skin dryness, blocked nose, influenza-like symptom and chest tightness) were determined using questionnaires. The results show that the proposed IEQ index can preferentially predict the subjective sensations of occupants. PM 10 was identified as the most significant environmental parameter, followed by formaldehyde, air temperature, carbon dioxide, noise level and illumination intensity. Eye dryness and lethargy were the most significant symptoms, followed by dry throat, headache, nausea, skin dryness and chest tightness. Blocked nose and influenza-like symptom were hardly reported by subjects. The findings of this study could provide a practical guidance for IEQ management to reduce unhealthy diseases for occupants.

A Novel Approach for the Definition of an Integrated Visual Quality Index for Residential Buildings

“…Visual quality is one of the basic factors that influences the perception of the environment and the state of mind of the occupants [8]. This assertion may find supporting proof in an analysis of the studies conducted in the last decade on overall comfort that correlate objective parameters of the environment with user satisfaction acquired through questionnaires [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. All of these studies consider visual quality among the aspects that affect IEQ and the relative weight given to this aspect varies from 0.19 (school) [11] to 0.29 (commercial) [15].…”

“…In any case, the great majority of studies in this field accept structuring IEQ analysis using the four aforementioned aspects, which are evaluated as the most important and strictly related to human response to environment exposure. Many attempts to combine these factors and obtain an overall IEQ index have been made in past years [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17], but currently no consensus has been found on how to weigh the different factors.…”

Global Research Trends on Building Indoor Environmental Quality Modelling and Indexing Systems—A Scientometric Review

“…While different IEQ assessment methods have been introduced, these IEQ indexes did not incorporate the health impacts exerted by the indoor environment. Eye dryness [102,103], lethargy [2,104], dry throat [105][106][107], headache [108,109], nausea [110,111], skin dryness [112,113], blocked nose [107,114,115], and chest tightness [106,116] were common symptoms caused by insufficient ventilation and poor air quality. Some health symptoms are not related to a specific indoor environment parameter.…”

Intelligent Systems for Building Energy and Occupant Comfort Optimization: A State of the Art Review and Recommendations

“…People spend most of their time in buildings. Maintenance of indoor comfort parameters is therefore significant to improve occupants productivity, health, and comfort feeling [32]. Thermal comfort in indoor environment is the principal component for ensuring indoor environment quality.…”