Study on the Thermal Performance of Office Spaces in the Tropics: A Case Study in Singapore

Commercial and office buildings often have problems on the aspects of indoor thermal environment and energy performances. The actual performance of these types of buildings, most of the time, are different from the desired performance. A data collection was conducted in an office space of a university building in Singapore as part of the ongoing study, measuring the environmental performance of office buildings across Southeast Asian countries. The objective measurement on the thermal condition shows that most measurement points across office space is at the colder side of the comfort zone. This finding is supported by the survey results where only about 65% of occupants voted for "slightly cool", "neutral" and "slightly warm" and about 22% of occupants showed "cold" related symptoms on their legs, hands and body at the end of working hours. The calculated neutral temperature range was generally from 24 degrees C to 26 degrees C, while the measured room temperature was mostly below 24 degrees C.