Post-occupancy evaluation of the actual performance of a low-carbon building

Abstract

It is vital that the development of low carbon buildings to achieve carbon neutrality in China. Nonetheless, the actual post-commissioning performance of buildings has gained little attention. A post-occupancy evaluation of low-carbon buildings was conducted, covering analysis of indoor environmental indicators and carbon reduction. The main objective of the study was to assess the post-occupancy performance of low-carbon buildings and to guide their development towards achieving the zero-carbon goal. Specifically, indoor environmental operating parameters and carbon reduction were quantified. The outcomes demonstrated that indoor environmental parameters were influenced by factors, such as room location, room orientation, the behavior of office workers, and the number of office workers. Nevertheless, in terms of long-term trends, the indoor temperature and relative humidity indicators were better than the requirements of the relevant standards. Meanwhile, there is an excellent comfort level in low-carbon buildings, thermal sensations almost constantly behave as neutral. The average CO2 concentration in all rooms was always less than 756 ppm throughout the year, which was 24.4% lower than the standard value. Additionally, the electricity consumption of the actual operation phase of the low-carbon office building was 28.76 kWh/(m2⋅a), the electricity saving rate was 41.28% compared to the electricity consumption of the reference building. The emission reduction of CO2, SO2 and dust were 4.66 kg/m2, 0.04 kg/m2, and 0.02 kg/m2, respectively. Overall, this paper can provide valuable information for the development of zero-carbon buildings.

Keywords

• Low-carbon office buildings
• Carbon emissions
• Post-occupancy evaluation
• Indoor environmental quality