Siew Eang Lee

Demonstration intelligent building—a methodology for the promotion of total sustainability in the built environment

The idea to relate intelligent building projects and demonstrations to total sustainability in the built environment is presented in this paper. By considering intelligent buildings in the spirit of built heritage conservation, future architectural and construction efforts can contribute toward emergence of durable buildings that are meant to enhance sustainability in the built environment. The promotion of intelligent and green technologies should be educational in nature, reaching out to a wide range of parties and allowing them to participate in the progress of the technologies. We propose an initiative to promote this process. We also examine two case studies of existing demonstration projects.

Establishment of energy management tools for facilities managers in the tropical region

Purpose – To establish national energy performance benchmarks and an energy efficiency classification system for commercial office buildings from whole building to sub‐systems level for building professionals including facility managers.Design/methodology/approach – Issuing of survey form and questionnaires to 16 building owners before field interview. Building physical data and systems nameplate, quantities and types were verified on site. The past 24 months electricity consumption bills were also collected from building owners. Physical environmental conditions and short‐term power measurement on building systems were done to determine the level of energy consumption and performance.Research limitations/implications – The classification and benchmarking methodology developed is useful for the regions to establish their own database and tools.Practical implications – The building energy performance assessment and auditing methodology are useful to both building owner/manager and energy services companies...

Retrofitting solutions for two different occupancy levels of educational buildings in tropics

ABSTRACT Within the multi-functionality of educational buildings, the energy conservation potential can be very different. In addition, among different retrofitting solutions investigated involving interventions on the building envelope, ventilation strategies, artificial lighting systems as well as equipment upgrading, different saving potential would come from different aspects. The opportunities for energy saving potential from the overall point of view and from the detailed aspect view of different retrofitting solutions would be very useful and important for building renovation decision making. This study presents a detailed retrofitting study of two different educational buildings. One represents a building with average occupancy variation and containing mainly offices and labs. The other one represents a building with high occupancy variation and containing mainly lecture rooms and studios. This comparison of the results gives an idea of the different energy saving potential for different types of educational buildings. Principal component analysis is also adopted to investigate the detailed performance of one of the buildings which is influenced stronger by these retrofitting solutions.

Energy utilizability concept as a retrofitting solution selection criterion for buildings

AbstractRetrofitting is widely explored as one of the energy conserving opportunities for existing buildings, in which both passive and active solutions are carefully evaluated. However, when different retrofitting solutions are combined and applied to a building, the total energy savings potential, which is less than the sum of the savings from applying the various individual retrofitting solutions, is considerably reduced and the synergies among the various technologies need to be understood and evaluated. In this study, the concept of utilizability is employed for the analysis of multiple energy retrofitting solutions in buildings and is defined as the ratio of energy savings derived from applying combined solutions to a building over the sum of individual energy savings from applying individual solutions. It is aimed at providing a better understanding of the combined retrofitting solutions. The sensitivity analysis on the utilizability value further provides a selection criterion for retrofitting sol...

A total building performance approach to evaluating building acoustics performance

Acoustic comfort is an important consideration in the design and construction of office buildings. Since the acoustic performance of a building will affect its inhabitants psychologically, sociologically and physiologically, post-occupancy evaluations of acoustic performance are often necessary to ensure that acoustic design features are effective. Since acoustic quality is often affected by the interplay among the buildings interior, structural, envelope and mechanical systems, it is critical to assess acoustic quality in an integrated manner. This article presents a detailed acoustic evaluation of a three-storeyed office building by adopting a total building performance (TBP) approach. Through plan/archive analysis, expert walkthrough, objective acoustic measurements and analysis, the existing acoustic problems are identified. Subjective views of occupants regarding acoustic quality in the office and warehouse spaces are also sought. It was found that both objective and subjective data support each other. By understanding how these problems are caused by the interactions among the different building systems, specific solutions were proposed. In summary, this work highlights the usefulness of using a TBP concept to diagnose the acoustic quality of a multi-storeyed office building in an integrated manner. This project is motivated by an effort to promote workplace comfort and sustainability within the framework of corporate social responsibility.

The Thermal Effects of Plants on Buildings

The concept of rooftop gardens is introduced with the aim of reducing heat gain into a building and modifying the ambient conditions through photosynthesis and evapotransipration of plants. Results from this study suggest that rooftop gardens can effectively cool down the immediate ambient environment by 1.5°C. Generally, the surface temperature readings collected from the rooftop garden were found to be lower than that recorded on a barren concrete rooftop. This shows that the thermal insulation of a building is improved in the presence of plants. High relative humidity (RH) at the rooftop garden was also observed due to the presence of plants. To prevent discomfort due to high humidity, adequate natural ventilation should be ensured.

Impact of Road Traffic and Other Sources of Noise on the School Environment

The scale of traffic noise problems and its impact on the indoor environment of schools were investigated in 105 of 351 schools in Singapore. The assessment of traffic noise was made objectively, and its impact on the background noise levels in schools was evaluated, using speech intelligibility tests and a subjective survey. The results showed a significant reduction in speech intelligibility when the background noise was raised from 55 to 65 dBA. Methods of effecting noise control in class-rooms have been investigated, from which it was shown that noise reduction of up to 6 dBA can be achieved without major changes to the architectural design and cost. Thus road traffic noise has a significant impact on the acoustical performance of schools in cities with a high population density, especially those situated in hot and humid climatic zones, where natural ventilation is essential for thermal comfort.The scale of traffic noise problems and its impact on the indoor environment of schools were investigated in 105 of 351 schools in Singapore. The assess ment of traffic noise was made objectively, and its impact on the background noise levels in schools was evaluated, using speech intelligibility tests and a subjective survey. The results showed a significant reduction in speech intelli gibility when the background noise was raised from 55 to 65 dBA. Methods of effecting noise control in class-rooms have been investigated, from which it was shown that noise reduction of up to 6 dBA can be achieved without major changes to the architectural design and cost. Thus road traffic noise has a significant impact on the acoustical performance of schools in cities with a high population density, especially those situated in hot and humid climatic zones, where natural ventilation is essential for thermal comfort.

Air Exchange Efficiency of a Ventilation System - a Case Study

The problems associated with poor indoor air quality may in most cases be attributed to poorly designed and poorly performing ventilation systems. The problems in a mechanically air-conditioned building are compounded if the building is fairly air tight and depends on fresh air provision at the central fresh air intake in the air handling unit (AHU). The performance of such a ventilation system not only depends on the quantity of fresh air provided at the fresh air intake but the manner in which this air is distributed around the various zones in the building. The ventilation performance, characterised by the space air distribution, may be dictated by either the initial design and commissioning of the different components of the air-conditioning system, such as the AHU, ducts, diffusers, etc. or subsequent changes in the office space layout and furnishing. This paper deals with the determination of some key ventilation parameters such as the air change rate, the age of air and the air exchange efficiency, all of which lead to an insight into the performance of the ventilation system. The approach is case-study-based and the methodology involves tracer gas analysis employing the concentration decay method as a means of determining the key parameters.

A Fuzzy Logic framework for intelligent Building (IB) classification for commercial buildings in the tropics

SYNOPSIS Intelligent Building (IB) as a class of buildings appears to have significant variation in scope and definition with respect to geographic region and the status of economic development of city or state. From the real estate point of view, IB represents real assets with investment premium for the technological “value added”. They are to yield benefits for all the relevant stakeholders including a return on investment. It is therefore important to be able to measure and classify IB in order to avoid false claims, and more importantly to ensure an appropriate and objective discourse and development of IB. This could also assist in the optimisation of investment resources. This paper presents a proposed framework to measure and classify IB using a holistic approach. The proposed classification system, using the fuzzy logic approach, can lead to the establishment of a consistent performance based structure for assessing and classifying IB—the standard fuzzy logic expert system (FES). With the subsequent establishment of the Innovative Fuzzy Logic Expert System (IFES), such a performance based building evaluation and assessment structure, other relevant development trends in addition to IB may be developed.