On Post Occupancy Evaluation of the Preferred Luminous Environment and Occupants’ Satisfaction for Office Buildings in Malaysia: A Survey
12 Pages Posted: 19 Dec 2011
Date Written: December 18, 2011
Abstract
Lighting is desired for work and it has an impact to occupants’ satisfaction with their workspace to improve the preferred luminous condition in day-lit office. This study investigates the acceptable luminance level that meet the requirement for visual comfort through post occupancy evaluations for office buildings in Malaysia. This paper presents the literature that shows an overview of investigation in daylight distribution and availability that relates to acceptable luminance levels in day-lit offices. The investigations are to know until what extend do people aware on luminance environment by obtaining occupant’s feedback. The results of a survey are conducted through occupant's respond of daylight availability in work area by using four different layout in office building and the responses from occupants in the same building with different characterized of fenestration. The acceptable daylight availability and luminance levels by occupant for each room can be seen from the field experiment based on photo simulation using High Dynamic Range ( HDR) images and field survey on different layout in office building. This study of daylight distribution in an open plan will result the findings on how peoples’ attitude toward openings and the acceptable luminance level is related to visual comfort. Through these variables, it becomes the parameter to this research. It is observed that the office buildings are not designed for daylight utilization, with average daylight factor (DF) lower than 1.5 per cent and not all the office building has achieved MS1525 :2007 minimum work plane luminance (WPI) recommendation of 300-500 lux when electric lights were on [9]. The combination of daylight and artificial light were still needed in office building even though there was plenty of sunlight in this country which was abundance [2]. More than 60 per cent of occupants felt the distribution of daylight is uneven and caused visual discomfort when electric lights were off. The relationship between luminous condition and visual discomfort had the significant to peoples’ attitudes toward windows .This resulting key will provide better understanding for the development of window opening, internal shading control for the office occupants and acceptable luminance level in office building in Malaysia.
Keywords: Daylighting, Illuminance, Occupant satisfaction, Post-occupancy evaluation, Visual discomfort
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