Indoor environmental quality for human comfort factors study in office buildings

Abstract

Poor indoor environmental quality (IEQ) can cause Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), different people have different tolerance level of indoor environment condition that could result in various kinds of subjective responses. Previous study demonstrate that current building user are dissatisfied with the indoor environmental conditions even though the technical measurement results show that the present standards are fulfilled. This research aims to study the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) for human comfort in office buildings. Data was collected by means of questionnaire, in-situ measurement and document review. The questionnaire survey was analysed using SPSS version 27.0. Four equipment were used to measure the IEQ condition which are humidity/temperature data recorder (Model MHT-381SD), lux meter (Model LX-1128SD), sound level meter (Model SoundPro SE/DL) and anemometer (Model AM-4307SD). As a result, overall respondents were more comfortable and satisfied with the IEQ in Eco Botanic. The measured IEQ average value ranges were 25.3 °C to 28.8 °C (temperature), 105 lux to 489 lux (illuminance), 46.4 dB(A) to 57.3 dB(A) (sound level), 0.10 m/s to 0.27 m/s (air movement) and 53.3 % to 75.8 % (relative humidity). From the document review, most measured IEQ values did not fulfil the requirement of MS 1525:2014 and BS EN 15251:2007. In conclusion, it is very important to ensure good IEQ in order to achieve human comfort and health.