Publication
A protocol for longitudinal monitoring of individual building occupants and their environments
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date:
23-09-2022
DOI:
10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0274015
Abstract: Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy consumption across the European Union, so there is a requirement to strive for better energy performance to reduce the global impact of urbanised societies. However, energy performant buildings can negatively impact building occupants (e.g., comfort, health and/or wellbeing) due to a trade-off between airtightness and air circulation. Thus, there is a need to monitor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to inform how it impacts occupants and hence redefine value within building performance metrics. An in idualised study design would enable researchers to gain new insights into the effects of environmental changes on in iduals for more targeted e.g., health interventions or nuanced and improved building design(s). This paper presents a protocol to conduct longitudinal monitoring of an in idual and their immediate environment. Additionally, a novel approach to environmental perception gathering is proposed that will monitor environmental factors at an in idual level to investigate subjective survey data pertaining to the participant’s perceptions of IEQ (e.g., perceived air quality, thermal conditions, light, and noise). This protocol has the potential to expose time-differential phenomena between environmental changes and an in idual’s behavioural and physiological responses. This could be used to support building performance monitoring by providing an interventional assessment of building performance renovations. In the future it could also provide building scientists with a scalable approach for environmental monitoring that focuses specifically on in idual health and wellbeing.