Abstract
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has become one of the main concerns in built environment due to its effects on productivity, health and well-being. Poor IEQ can lead to discomfort and sickness, and businesses may need to suffer tremendous cost associated with the negative influences induced by substandard IEQ. Therefore, IEQ shall not be overlooked in building development and facility management practice.IEQ can be categorized into a number of aspects, most popular ones include thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ). Overall IEQ itself is also another perspective to evaluate building performance. The intra-relationship between factors of a particular aspect and the inter-relationship between aspects on overall IEQ have been found to be exceedingly complex, and these associations are usually task- and occupant-specific, which may change over time with lived experience by developing adaption and tolerance.
To tackle the intrinsic property of IEQ of being both subjectively and objectively influenced, this study proposes three assessment approaches to evaluate overall IEQ, thermal comfort and IAQ based on their respective natures. The inadequacy of current assessment methods and models is first identified. Literature search of thermal comfort field data and field study on sleeping thermal comfort are conducted to evaluate the performance of exiting thermal comfort models. Effects and implications of using inaccurate prediction models are also discussed.
| Date of Award | 2021 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Ling Tim Wong (Supervisor) & Kwok Wai Mui (Supervisor) |