Indoor thermal comfort in university classroom: a case of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Abstract

The student spends the majority of their time in the classroom to participate in the learning and teaching session. Recently, there are plenty of issues reported from the building occupants due to poor thermal comfort in the building. A poor indoor thermal could lead to Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), unproductive and unhappy occupants. A conducive indoor thermal environment, on the other hand, helps the occupants to perform well, such as increasing their ability to focus, become more productive and not easily get an illness. This study aims to investigate the indoor thermal comfort level of classrooms in a university. Empirical data were collected from field observation which was held in two sessions (morning and evening) in February 2019 in 40 classrooms. The results showed that 70 % of the classrooms have complied with the existing standard of air temperature and 85 % of the classrooms have complied with the standard of relative humidity. All of the classrooms were recorded with a higher level of air velocity as required in the standard. The findings of this study can provide a guide for facilities manager to improve the indoor thermal comfort level in the classroom and increase awareness among building users on the importance of conducive indoor thermal comfort.