A study on the effects of thermal, luminous, and acoustic environments on indoor environmental comfort in offices

Abstract

In light of growing concerns about productivity, much more attention has focused on the indoor environment in offices in recent years. Standards typically address different environmental factors such as thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and aural and visual environments separately. In fact, these environmental factors have notable combined effects on occupants’ acceptability and work performance. ASHRAE Guideline 10P emphasized the interactions among indoor environmental factors and recommended that more detailed research is conducted. In this study, a controlled field survey was carried out to investigate the acceptable range of every individual environmental factor as well as the cumulative effects of multiple factors on indoor environmental quality. In the survey, the parameters of thermal, luminous, and acoustic environments were measured and subjects’ satisfaction levels with regard to the indoor environment were determined using questionnaires. The results show that the satisfaction levels of both temperature and noise have one-vote veto power over the satisfaction level of the indoor environment as a whole. In addition, the interactions among different factors were examined through chart analysis to classify indoor environmental quality.