B083 Office IEQ efficiency

Efficiency assessment of indoor environmental policy for air-conditioned offices

Brief:

To achieve the mission of energy saving in air-conditioned buildings, it is recommended to operate the A/C system within specified ranges of indoor temperature, relative humidity and air velocity. Some indoor environmental policies for air-conditioned offices in Hong Kong are investigated in this study with relation to thermal energy consumption and productivity loss due to thermal discomfort. Occupant thermal response is specifically considered as an adaptive factor in evaluating the energy consumption and productivity loss. It was found that a policy with little impact on occupant thermal comfort and worker productivity would improve the office efficiency while the one with excessive energy consumption reduction would result in a substantial productivity loss. The result of this study is a useful reference source for evaluating an indoor thermal environmental policy regarding the energy consumption, thermal comfort and productivity loss in air-conditioned offices in subtropical areas.

Further Information:

Wong LT, Mui KW, Chan WY, 2009. Efficiency assessment of indoor environmental policy for air-conditioned offices, Proceedings of Healthy Buildings, Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, 13-17 September, Syracuse, NY USA, Paper no. 632.