Targeted occupant surveys: A novel method to effectively relate occupant feedback with environmental conditions

Roa, Carlos Duarte; Schiavon, Stefano; Parkinson, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107129

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…In tandem with these changes, the authors are investigating novel approaches to pairing postoccupancy evaluation (POE) surveys with other data types, including unobtrusive measures (such as those collected from sensors) and real-time, in-the-moment occupant feedback (Duarte et al 2020). The reporting tools have also been improved in order to deliver accessible and meaningful findings to designers, building owners, and occupants.…”

Section: Authors' Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned from 20 years of CBE’s occupant surveys

Graham

Parkinson

Schiavon

2021

Buildings and Cities

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Buildings influence diverse factors (e.g. health, wellbeing, productivity, and social connection). Occupants' direct experiences with their indoor environments allow them to determine whether those spaces support or hinder the activities performed. However, most post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) focus solely on measuring people's levels of comfort and environmental satisfaction. With increasing attention and interest in occupant health and wellness, there is a need to reassess whether occupant surveys are evaluating all they need to. An analysis is presented of data collected from a widely used online POE tool: The Center for the Built Environment's (CBE) Occupant Survey (more than 90,000 respondents from approximately 900 buildings) in order to summarise its database and evaluate the survey's structure and benchmarking metrics. A total of 68% of the respondents are satisfied with their workspace. Satisfaction is highest with spaces' ease of interaction (75% satisfied), amount of light (74%), and cleanliness (71%). Dissatisfaction is highest with sound privacy (54% dissatisfied), temperature (39%), and noise level (34%). Correlation, principal component, and hierarchical clustering analyses identified seven distinct categories of measurement within the 16 satisfaction items. Results also revealed that a reduction in the scale may be possible. Based on these results, potential improvements and new directions are discussed for the future of POE tools. PRACTICE RELEVANCE Assessing the measurement properties in a widely used occupant satisfaction survey reveals what is still useful to include and what may be missing from occupant surveys. These insights are increasingly important as built-environment research evolves and an increasing emphasis is placed on the physical and mental wellbeing of occupants and their productivity. Typical occupant satisfaction rates are reported for indoor environmental quality parameters and benchmark values. These can be used as references by practitioners and other survey tools. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made for different clustering and themes of measurement categories, along with the scope of additional questions that can be posed to occupants.

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Section: Authors' Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned from 20 years of CBE’s occupant surveys

Graham

Parkinson

Schiavon

2021

Buildings and Cities

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“…The existing studies have confirmed that subjective post occupancy evaluation (POE) surveys using occupant-centric approaches together with objective building characteristics can help with analyzing IEQ and thus building performance [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between Building Characteristics and Indoor Environmental Quality through Post-Occupancy Evaluation

Bortolini

Forcada

2021

Energies

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Post-occupancy evaluations are common tools used to periodically assess Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) in tertiary buildings. Although the large amount of data collected from surveys contain valuable information, the influence of building characteristics on IEQ considering the different uses of the rooms and different types of occupants is rarely considered in the evaluation. This study presents an analysis of the association between building characteristics and IEQ in different building rooms (classrooms and offices) and different occupants (students and lecturers) using a post occupancy evaluation survey to 1013 occupants in 26 higher educational buildings in Spain under a Mediterranean climate. This research demonstrated that building characteristics influence IEQ perceptions of the different rooms in tertiary education buildings. The possibility of controlling the lighting, shadows or heating, ventilation air or conditioning (HVAC) systems are the most influential factors when analyzing IEQ. The findings of this research are of interest to facility managers aiming at implementing energy efficiency measures based on user-centric satisfaction or developing maintenance plans focused on IEQ enhancement.

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“…New metrics and tools are recently becoming available to gather building and user data, under controlled or field study conditions, in order to better identify the environmental factors-or combinations thereof-that mostly matter to the perceptions and states of building occupants (e.g. Duarte Roa et al 2020). This will allow the definition of more robust models to predict actions and behaviours in response to changes in indoor and outdoor settings and exposures (Hong et al 2017;O'Brien et al 2020).…”

Section: A New Emerging Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%