A field study of investigation of indoor environmental quality status in Indian offices: Concerns and influencing building factors

Abstract

Maintaining a high-quality indoor environment in office buildings is important as it impacts the office workers’ health, well-being, and productivity. The objective of this paper is to present the state of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in Indian offices. It discusses the findings of a comprehensive IEQ evaluation of 30 air-conditioned Indian offices; highlights the areas of concern and discusses the building aspects that were influencing the IEQ conditions. Building details collected from the project teams and the IEQ data on 17 parameters under 4 categories (indoor air quality (IAQ), lighting and views, thermal comfort, and acoustics) that were collected via spot measurements and on-site inspections, were analyzed using a data-driven approach to determine the IEQ status. The measured data was examined with reference to relevant Indian and international standards. Study findings reveal a prevalence of sub-standard indoor environment in Indian offices and the main concerns were IAQ (high levels of CO2, TVOC, PM & NO2), lighting conditions (low illuminance and low EML levels), lack of access to good quality external views and high levels of interior generated background noise. The research highlights several IEQ issues in Indian offices that need to be addressed to maintain conditions as per the recommendations of the relevant national and international IEQ standards. The paper also describes the IEQ evaluation protocol. This protocol and the findings of this study will provide guidance to building owners and facility managers in investigating and improving the indoor environmental conditions in office spaces.