SIPBS Site Visit
Part of the activities of post occupancy evaluation is a building walk through and inspection of the equipment and energy systems. This was done at three different occasions, with staff of the Estates services as guide, with building users and independently.
During this site visit guided by the building users, several issues were raised by the users, many of which were construction related and, apart from little inconvenience, had no impact on thermal comfort. Some were however related to thermal comfort. These had to do with design choices and were the basis for some of the questions asked during interview with consultants.
The team took temperature and air flow measurements and thermo-graphic picture of the building during the independent site visit. Some office air temperatures were found to be around 22℃ but radiant temperature of the walls and windows were very low creating a cold wall effect, which was a major reason for thermal discomfort. Rooms with walls and windows with large surface areas exhibited this phonomenon more. The cold wall effect is shown in greater clarity in the thermo-graphic images below.
The visits helped in deciding which areas required attention, candidate zones/spaces for testing proposed methodology and in designing format for the questionnaires.