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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Saving energy and cutting costs without compromising indoor comfort conditions are challenging, especially in hot and humid regions such as Malaysia. This study explores a new approach to reducing energy consumption without compromising staff comfort in office buildings. This study aims to develop a method for lowering Building Energy Index (BEI) and maintaining acceptable indoor conditions while increasing productivity in office buildings. A developed triangulation method using Building Use Studies (BUS) for evaluating occupant satisfaction, physical measurements, and simulation modelling was implemented to measure indoor performance in an office building. The results indicated that enhancing six variables of building conditions managed to improve occupant satisfaction by 44%. Hence, the productivity of staff in the building increased by 16%. The findings demonstrated that a reduction of 3 h in the operating times of chillers while an increase in chillers’ temperature by 1.5 °C maintained an acceptable indoor environment and reduced the building’s BEI to 89.48 kWh/m2/year, with an energy saving of 21.51%, turning the case study into a low energy building.

Details

Title
Triangulation Method to Assess Indoor Environmental Conditions and Occupant Comfort and Productivity towards Low Energy Buildings in Malaysia
Author
Mohammed Hatim Al-Sabahi 1 ; Muhammad Azzam Ismail 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ali Mohammed Alashwal 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Al-Obaidi, Karam M 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Department of Architecture, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia 
 School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia 
 Department of the Natural and Built Environment, College of Social Sciences and Arts, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK 
First page
1788
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20755309
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2734611104
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.