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Building Monitoring

Building Monitoring – Climate and Thermal Comfort

The building monitoring aims at determining the human comfort conditions in the building and its energy efficiency, the air-tightness (infiltration) of the building envelope, the thermal bridges and the heat island effect. 

  1. August 2016
  2. September 2016
For the initial monitoring of the building the SUI CyI research team installed a weather station on the roof, placed sensors inside the building and performed a thermal comfort assessment survey.

1. Climate data monitoring

Exterior
A Vantage Pro2 weather station was placed on the building roof to collect data from the SUI area. Regularly updated information about the climatic conditions could be found on the station webpage: http://www.weatherlink.com/user/suitepakcy/. The weather station base was designed and installed by the CyI technical equipment development team.

Interior
Twelve (12) HOBO data-loggers were placed in the building, for collecting temperature, humidity and light data. The data are collected every 30 minutes and will be elaborated with the HOBOware software.

2. Thermal comfort assessment questionnaire

A survey on occupant comfort satisfaction with the indoor environment in summer was conducted. The questionnaire was based on templates proposed by the HSE (http://www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/index.htm). A third of the total employees were asked and complementary measurements were made using a Heat Stress WBGT (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature) Meter, both for the indoor and the outdoor climatic conditions at the time of the survey.

Images below, from left to right:
Left: The Vantage Pro2 weather station
Middle: HOBO data logger placed in the working place – 1st floor
Right: Completed questionnaire (first page) – Ground floor.

1. Thermal imaging

Thermal images were taken using a T440 Flir thermal camera in order to find missing, damaged, or inadequate insulation, building envelope air leaks, moisture intrusion and other problems. Also, the main sources of radiant temperature were determined.

2. HOBO sensors data collection and analysis

The temperature, humidity, air movement and dew point data from the HOBO sensors were collected and analysed. The mean predicted vote (PMV) was calculated using the CBE Thermal Comfort Tool (http://comfort.cbe.berkeley.edu/EN). In all the spaces under monitoring the people are expected to be in thermal comfort, since all values are within the thermal comfort range of -0.7

Images below, from left to right:
Left: A thermal image from the mezzanine
Right: Graph. Thermal Comfort PMV