Energy assessment of thermal indoor conditions in office buildings.

Abstract

This Paper is the second part of the Master Thesis under the Topic Title “Energy Assessment of Thermal Indoor Conditions in Office Buildings”. In the first part, the energy consumption of the building sector, and especially office buildings, was examined through the Literature Review. The Case Study involved a provincial Public Office Building that was investigated for its energy consumption through an energy audit. Measures were proposed with the respective cost breakdown, while there was also a questionnaire survey about the building's Thermal Comfort, though limited due to the small number of its occupants. In this part, emphasis will be given to the Thermal Comfort sector. More specifically in the literature review, Chapter 1 is introducing the Indoor Environment, while Chapter 2 covers the whole range of Thermal Comfort, from numerical calculations to its various approaches, as a significant factor of the Indoor Environmental Quality. In the same Chapter, the rest indoor factors such as the acoustic and visual comfort, are illustrated as well. Chapter 3, gives an overview of the building sector along with its weaknesses, as related to the pollution of the indoor environment, but also with modern techniques such as the bioclimatic design that can create sustainable and healthy indoor environments. The two main office formation types and the important construction elements that affect the Thermal Comfort, are also discussed here. The next Chapter deals with the Post Occupancy Evaluation, as a measure for the Building Performance Evaluation. It is actually the Literature Introduction for this Thesis Case Study during which, the satisfaction levels of the occupants of an urban public office building, as related to the Thermal Comfort and the indoor environment generally, were researched through an extensive survey with the use of questionnaires. The satisfactory number of the participants led to useful conclusions, which are depicted in charts and tables.