An Assessment of Thermal Comfort in Multi Storey Office Buildings in Ghana

• 作者: Barbara Simons Christian Koranteng Emmanuel Adinyira Joshua Ayarkwa
• 来源期刊: 房屋建造与规划研究(英文)
• 学科: 医学
• 关键词: THERMAL COMFORT ASHRAE Standard 55 OFFICE BUILDINGS NATURAL Mechanical
• 年，卷（期）: 2014,（1）
• 页码范围: 30-38
• 页数: 9页
• 分类号: R73

摘要

Amidst the recent development in the usage of curtain walls for office buildings, high utilization of energy and poor thermal comfort issues have become paramount. This paper assesses thermal comfort in multi storey (naturally and mechanically ventilated) office buildings in Accra, the Capital city of Ghana using Fanger’s Predicted Mean Votes (PMV) and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied persons (PPD) model. The model relates to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55 (which gives an acceptable temperature range of 23℃ - 26℃) and the International Standards Organization (ISO) 7730. Indoor environmental parameters (temperature and relative humidity) of 4 multi storey office buildings were recorded over a 10 month period. The environmental parameters were analyzed using PMVcalc_v2 software which resulted in the generation of PMV-PPD values. The findings reveal high PMV-PPD values in the Naturally Ventilated Building (NVB) whiles the Mechanically Ventilated Buildings (MVB) fall within the comfort zone. Meanwhile, the Actual Mean Votes (AMV) by the occupants suggest all four buildings are relatively comfortable with the mechanically ventilated offices being more comfortable. Additionally, it is recommended that buildings are orientated with their longer sides facing north-south, with enough shading in order to improve the thermal comfort conditions of work spaces.