Side Event: Distinguished Lecturers Seminar by ASHRAE

21 July, 9 am – 6 pm

Thermal Comfort and IAQ in High Performing Buildings
The concept of “one-size fits all” is pretty much the standard norm with the design and operation of air-conditioning systems in buildings worldwide. Actually many of the basis designs are quite complex, however, it would appear that when Local Design Institutes (LDI) are involved a majority of designs shrink back to a standard AHU or even a simple fan coil system In particular, tropical buildings suffer from the inevitability of being either too cold or too warm and stuffy, resulting from one large central air-conditioning system with very little flexibility and control. The reason for this is much the same as in the US when the so called Project Management Teams are involved and carry out value engineering before the designs are finished and decisions are based on rather poor previous decisions. This often leads to an energy penalty besides the obvious discomfort. When comfort isn’t really included in the design, how are the clients and users to be aware of what occupant comfort is? This could be seen as a big failure of international thermal comfort standards, such as ASHRAE standard 55. Wouldn’t it be nice if individual occupants in a building were to have control over their immediate microenvironments, creating their own Personalised Environments? Can the occupants control the thermal comfort and indoor air quality (IAQ) of their individual spaces in a building, irrespective of the size, shape and layout of the building? In the context of Climate Change, can personalized environments be possible in modern buildings with attractive energy benefits leading to the notion of Energy Efficient Healthy Buildings? The answers to such questions lie in how we look at the integrated design, installation and operation of the HVAC and BAS systems.

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