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Assessing IEQ Performance in Buildings

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Abstract

Building characteristics, indoor physical layout, and environmental quality have plausible links on occupants’ health, comfort, satisfaction, and productivity. Assessing IEQ performance in office buildings involves objective and experimental measurements and subjective methods. The chapter summarizes post-occupancy survey instruments (such as BOSTI, MM040 Questionnaire , Building Use Studies —US EPA BASE, EU project HOPE) in evaluating building energy consumption, maintenance systems, and occupant comfort after the built facility has been occupied. The prEN 16798-1 (2015) , ISO 7730 and US ASHRAE 55 (2010) /2013 are the guidance documents on IEQ imperatives related to the design and assessment of energy performance of buildings. The recommended four categories defined in prEN 16798-1 (2015) to express levels of occupants’ expectation are uniquely structured, elaborating its utility in design, analysis, and operation of energy-efficient and comfortable buildings. This chapter describes the emergence of IEQ index and mathematical derivation of sub-indices for thermal comfort , acoustic comfort, lighting comfort and IAQ, to arrive at an evaluative picture of IEQ in a cluster of office and non-residential building. Further, assessment of IEQ encompasses evaluating health effects (such as SBS , hypersensitivity pneumonitis , asthma) and occupant’s performance and productivity .

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  1. School of Environment and Disaster Management, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Pranab Kumar Nag

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Nag, P.K. (2019). Assessing IEQ Performance in Buildings. In: Office Buildings. Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2577-9_11

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