Articles

Assessing Indoor Environmental Quality of Academic Building Using Subjective Measurement

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Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) is becoming increasingly popular as a means of assessing human comfort, especially in educational environments. Determining an appropriate degree of indoor environment quality (IEQ) involves considering many factors like thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic comfort, and visual comfort. These days, there is an intense need for educational facilities to have high-quality interior environments by reason of the fear of a worldwide pandemic.  This research looks into IEQ characteristics in several standard functional locations of a Navsari academic building. In order to assess the level of user satisfaction in the staff room, drawing hall, and classroom, a sequence of questionnaires measuring the subjective aspects of the IEQ parameters (TC, AC, IAQ, and LC) were utilized. According to the study’s findings, the summer months had the lowest proportion of TC parameter satisfaction overall and the highest percentage of AC parameter satisfaction. Additionally, the data demonstrates that the satisfaction rate is lower for the LC and IAQ parameters. The research has confirmed that the academic building has low IEQ and It is necessary to take the required steps to turn out a more pleasant, conducive, and productive education place.

Material Performance of Vertical Surfaces and its Effects on Outdoor Thermal Comfort: Case of Hot and Dry Regions

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The thermal comfort of outdoor open spaces in hot and dry regions is an important aspect that needs to be considered when designing neighborhoods. Jaisalmer town which experiences harsh conditions during long summers is selected as a study area. This study analyses the material performance of vertical surfaces and their effects on outdoor thermal comfort. The existing site and its surface materials were studied, and on-site measurements were taken in June 2022. The was then compared with other scenarios which were simulated using Envi-MET 5.0.1. The scenarios were developed with the morphology exactly the same as the base case and variation in terms of surface materials. Four different configurations were developed including the base case. The results showed that the Case 1 scenario performed poorly, whereas case 4 showed the lowest temperatures. A strong correlation is observed between surface temperature and thermal parameters as well as albedo and thermal parameters. Making efforts in reducing the surface temperature and albedo can reduce the PET and Tmrt significantly. East-west oriented scenario showed the highest values for all the thermal parameters due to the longer exposure direct solar radiation. This study is an effort to emphasize the attention towards the efficient and appropriate material use which is also in harmony with the climate of the town. The traditional Jaisalmer limestone showed good positive results for all the analyses performed in this paper.

Comparative Analysis of Energy Consumption in Traditional and Modern Buildings in Village Sapni, a Village in Kinnaur District Located in Western Himalayan State of Himachal Pradesh

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High altitude regions of district Kinnaur in western Himalayan State of Himachal Pradesh, due to its high altitude topographical and cold climatic conditions, remains under snow for around six months in a year. Most of these areas receive snowfall around 5 – 7 feet on annual basis. Such extreme climatic conditions have made the life of local habitants difficult. The indigenous people have developed climate responsive architectural styles. Such type of vernacular architecture is based on utilization of locally available resources such as wood, mud and stones etc. The houses have been designed as per set principles of vastu shastra and utilize solar energy to optimum level in attaining a level of thermal comfort. It has been observed that such house based on vernacular techniques of housing are found to be energy efficient and comfortable throughout the year in comparisaon to modern cement concrete buildings. One such study of traditional and modern houses at village Sapni, District Kinnaur has been presented in this paper and it has been concluded that the traditional building is consuming less energy (about 50%) to that of modern building at the same site and location.