A Wireless Indoor Environmental Quality Logger Processing the Indoor Global Comfort Index

Area of Science:

• Building Science
• Environmental Health
• Human-Building Interaction

Background:

• Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) significantly affects health and productivity.
• IEQ encompasses thermal, air, visual, and acoustic comfort.
• Objective sensor data and subjective surveys are common methods for assessing IEQ.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a wireless indoor environmental quality logger.
• To develop an integrated approach for assessing global comfort indices.
• To calculate a predicted indoor global comfort index (P-IGCI) and estimate a real perceived indoor global comfort index (RP-IGCI).

Main Methods:

• Development of a wireless IEQ logger.
• Integration of objective sensor data and subjective survey data.
• Application of 19 different algorithms to minimize the difference between P-IGCI and RP-IGCI.
• Case study in a university classroom setting.

Main Results:

• The stepwise multiple linear regression model best minimized the distance between P-IGCI and RP-IGCI.
• Thermal comfort and indoor air quality were subjectively identified as the most relevant IEQ elements.
• Objective analysis confirmed temperature and CO2 as the most impactful physical parameters on overall comfort.

Conclusions:

• An integrated approach using a wireless logger and surveys effectively assesses IEQ.
• Temperature and CO2 are key objective indicators of indoor comfort.
• The findings are applicable to optimizing IEQ in educational settings.