ASSESSMENT OF THERMAL COMFORT AND INDOOR AIR QUALITY IN NATURAL VENTILATED WARDS

Abstract

With the aging population faced in the present, Singapore will have to cater to needs such as building more hospitals and nursing homes. To provide affordable healthcare to the community, such facilities would have to reduce on its operating costs. It can be done by choosing natural ventilation and cheaper mechanical ventilation such as fans instead of using ACMV systems. Hospitals are increasingly adopting the natural-ventilated approach for their subsidised wards. However, due to the hot and humid climate in Singapore, thermal comfort may be compromised while staying in the natural-ventilated (NV) ward. Also, in recent years, Singapore has been greatly affected with the transboundary haze and this will affect the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the NV wards as well. This is because constant air exchange takes place between the outdoor and indoor environments. The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate and determine the IAQ and thermal comfort of a natural-ventilated ward in a hospital. Objective and subjective measurements are carried out and results were benchmarked against standards and comfort charts to determine whether the IAQ and thermal comfort are acceptable in the ward. It was concluded that most of the IAQ parameters were within the SS554:2016 standards. However, thermal comfort is poor and this coincides with the subjective measurements results whereby staffs find the ward warm and they feel uncomfortable working in the environment. Hence, recommendations are provided based on the issues faced by the ward itself. However, this dissertation is limited in some ways. Firstly, it is only focused on one hospital ward and it does not account to all the NV wards in Singapore. Also, measurements are carried out in one week and it is not adequate to represent the overall ward’s condition. Therefore, it is recommended that the field tests can last for one year to see the trends and further determine the IAQ and thermal comfort of the ward.