Royapoor, M (2015) An investigation into the energy and control implications of adaptive comfort in a modern office building. PhD thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Abstract
An investigation into the potentials of adaptive comfort in an office building is carried out using fine grained primary data and computer modelling. A comprehensive literature review and background study into energy and comfort aspects of building management provides the backdrop against which a target building is subjected to energy and comfort audit, virtual simulation and impact assessment of adaptive comfort standard (BS EN 15251: 2007). Building fabric design is also brought into focus by examining 2006 and 2010 Approved Document part L potentials against Passive House design. This is to reflect the general direction of regulatory development which tends toward zero carbon design by the end of this decade. In finishing a study of modern controls in buildings is carried out to assess the strongest contenders that next generation heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technologies will come to rely on in future buildings. An actual target building constitutes the vehicle for the work described above. A virtual model of this building was calibrated against an extensive set of actual data using version control method. The results were improved to surpass ASHRAE Guide 14. A set of different scenarios were constructed to account for improved fabric design as well as historical weather files and future weather predictions. These scenarios enabled a comparative study to investigate the effect of BS EN 15251:2007 when compared to conventional space controls. The main finding is that modern commercial buildings built to the latest UK statutory regulations can achieve considerable carbon savings through adaptive comfort standard. However these savings are only modestly improved if fabric design is enhanced to passive house levels. Adaptive comfort can also be readily deployed using current web-enabled control applications. However an actual field study is necessary to provide invaluable insight into occupants' acceptance of this standard since winter-time space temperature results derived from BS EN 15251:2007 constitute a notable departure from CIBSE environmental guidelines.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | audit; commercial; commercial building; regulation; ventilation; simulation; computer modelling; weather |
| Index terms: | passive house design, literature review, ventilation, building management, winter, field study, weather, commercial building, impact assessment, regulation, audit, savings, office building, computer modelling, control method, adaptive comfort, comparative study, passive house, comfort, investigation |
| Subjects: | management, performance measurement, monitoring and control, occupational health and safety management, political science, data collection methods, air quality, human factors, research design and methodology, value management, modelling and simulation, data analysis and analytics, research methods, sustainable design, health safety and environment, construction type, climate science, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Project Management, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Quality Management, Construction Technology, Governance, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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