Indoor thermal environment in tropical archipelago city

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the indoor thermal comfort of the office building in the tropical archipelago city of Ternate, Indonesia. Survey and data collection were performed using several instruments, LSI-LASTEM Thermal Comfort Multi Logger, HOBO data logger, and HOBO data logger with the external sensor for measuring temperature, relative humidity, and wind velocity. At the time of measurement, thermal condition perceived by respondents is observed by the questionnaires of Thermal Comfort Vote (TCV) and Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV). TSV is performed by ASHRAE standard 55 and TCV from Bedford scale. The results show that indoor thermal condition is in uncomfortable level with the average temperature exceeds 29°C, RH is more than 70%, and wind velocity is lower than 0.5 m / s. More than 60% employees feel warm condition in TCV and TSV scales, but a majority of them (67%) still accept these conditions. It indicates that the employees in tropical archipelago city are quite tolerant to high temperatures. About 59% of respondents feel wind velocity is uncomfortable and 70% respondents expect to increase of wind velocity. Therefore, the new design concepts are needed to improve natural ventilation performance by combining cross ventilation with clerestory ventilation systems and planting trees around the building to reduce solar heat gain that penetrates to the building’s interior.