Pilot Study on Occupants’ Thermal Sensation at Different Ambient Temperature in Postgraduate Office with Cooling Mode in University Campus

Abstract

With rapid urbanization, massive amount of energy is required to compensate the electricity usage thus calls for a need to Malaysian government issuing standard MS1525:2014 for temperature settings in office buildings to meet energy efficiency goal. In co-sharing spaces, personal thermal comfort is often not met due to the different thermal sensation at different location inside office rooms. This study was conducted at four postgraduate office spaces with cooling mode in university campus located at Kuala Lumpur to evaluate the occupant’s thermal sensation. We used different set-point temperature of air conditioning ranging from 18.0°C to 28.6°C. The indoor thermal variables such as air temperature, globe temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity are measured at each respondent’s workspace and 200 responses were recorded from ten subjects. The mean value of thermal sensations votes is -0.4 and were within comfort range. 76% of responses voted ‘neutral’ humidity sensation as occupants have adapted to humid condition in Malaysia. The comfort operative temperature found in this study is 24.9°C which indicates that the minimum recommended temperature for energy conservation did not deprive occupants from comfort.