Topic B6: Prediction & Measurement

An Improved Method to Evaluate Indoor Microclimatic Data: Case Study of a

Book Archive in a Hot and Humid Climate
Maisarah ALI
1
, Majeed OLADOKUN
2,*
, and Samsul B. OSMAN
1
1
Department of Manufacturing and Material Engineering, International Islamic
University, Malaysia (IIUM) P. O. Box 10, 50728, Gombak, Malaysia.
2
Department of Architecture, Building Services Engineering, IIUM.
*
Corresponding email: lyday011@yahoo.com
Keywords: Indoor Microclimatic Parameters, Comfort Assessment, Indoor Air
Quality, Time-Series Data, Hygrothermal Profile
SUMMARY
Indoor microclimatic parameters are recurrently used to monitor building performance
for indoor environmental quality appraisal. Inputs for such assessment come from
time-series of microclimatic parameters taken with array of sensors and data loggers.
Existing methods analyse the data using averages, cumulative frequencies, frequency
distribution, standard deviation, ranges and other variability tests on the microclimate
profiles to benchmark the results against existing standards. However, the approach is
less efficient as only such variability tests are insufficient to report the microclimatic
conditions. This study considers a different approach by comparison between
standardised values of the raw data within similar time-step, at different data-points for
in-depth analysis of indoor microclimatic parameters. The case study was selected of a
book archive which conforms to ASHRAE standards on preservation with application
of the current approach but reveals microclimate stratification as the proposed
methodology is applied. This paper reports the approach, data collection,
manipulation, analysis and presentation of the proposed method.
INTRODUCTION
In the sustainable development policy, buildings are required to provide a safe haven
for its occupants - the living (human beings, pets and livestock) and non-living
(building fabrics, archives of books and monuments) without being detrimental to the
environment. Comfort parameters are established for occupants health: thermal, visual
and acoustical comfort; other indoor air quality specifications and energy efficiency.
Despite these, buildings still contribute negatively to its occupants well-being (Di
Giuseppe, 2013) a situation that keeps challenging the built environment
practitioners. As a result, making the building comfortable remains a great concern to
the built environment academic and industrial practitioners.
Benchmarks for discrete microclimatic parameters are set in standards and guidelines
to assess the indoor environmental quality (IEQ): air temperature, air velocity, air
humidity and other indoor air quality (IAQ) parameters. Conventionally, in a typical
indoor comfort assessment, time-series data are measured to give the time-step profiles
of microclimatic parameters. The existing methodologies estimate averages,
1
cumulative frequencies, frequency distribution, standard deviation, ranges and other
variability tests from the measured microclimatic parameters to: benchmark against
appropriate standards (Corgnati et al., 2009; Mickal et al., 2014) and compare with
simulated results for performance optimisation (Baggio et al., 2004; Chang and Falk,
2009). Other studies use the microclimate mean to examine the performance of
prediction models (Cornick and Kumaran, 2008), to compare reliability of building
performance simulation software (Steeman et al., 2010) and investigate design decision
on performance (Janssen and Christensen, 2013). In addition, an attempt to examine
the difference in microclimatic parameters at different points within the same occupied
zone was set forth by Garca-Diego and Zarzo (2010) but despite the accrued benefits
of the approach, it fails to examine the datas normality - a validity condition suggested
in Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) and also failed to use time-weighted average against
the BS 6069 (British Standards Institution, 1994) guideline. It is apparent from the
earlier studies cited above that analysis are carried out by benchmarking the average
indoor microclimate conditions against standards. Contrastingly, only temperature and
relative humidity averages over time are insufficient to tell the story of indoor
microclimatic conditions (Chang and Falk, 2009; Luther and Horan, 2009) as some
areas can witness peak values which average cannot reveal. Therefore, analytical
approach that reveal each data-point performance within similar time step and at
different points in the indoor space would be more beneficial for in-depth microclimate
analysis. To the authors best of knowledge, not much have been published in this
regards.
This study proposes a methodology that focuses on the application of a multivariate
approach to indoor microclimatic data assessment by standardising measured values to
investigate the variability and uniformity in the indoor microclimate at different
locations within an occupied zone. The methodology was applied to a book archive
with a null hypothesis that the air is well-mixed, hence the microclimate is uniform at
all the monitor points.
METHODOLOGIES
Standardisation Approach in Time-Series analysis of Microclimatic Parameters
Assuming that indoor microclimatic parameters are normally distributed, the study
develops an approach to use standardised values of microclimatic parameters measured
in various locations within the same indoor environment for an improved assessment.
Standardisation makes sense of direct comparison of raw data (Vincent and Weir,
2012) as it reflects the magnitude of data-points deviation from the mean. Various
approaches to standardisation exists (OriginLab, online) but Z-score is most preferred
(BEBLOG, online) due to its ability to report each data-point position within normal
distribution. In a mechanically ventilated indoor environment the air is well-mixed and
hence, the microclimate is expected to be uniformly distributed (Steeman et al., 2010).
In such case, similarity in standardised data for differing sensors location
measurements (at a particular time-step) implies uniform distribution of the
microclimate or otherwise indicates the reverse.
The study employs time-series data of indoor microclimatic parameters obtained from
array of sensors mounted in different locations of the indoor environment for medium
term measurement. Data from time-series measurements is huge and this, according to
Horan and Luther (2010) pose difficulty in interpretation and presentation. As data are
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useless, until they undergo appreciable refinements (Corgnati et al., 2009), a 24hours
sample data is randomly selected from the hourly data. The data are arranged in a
matrix of 24 observations by k variables (where k represent the monitor points in
columns) for each of the microclimatic parameters. The first step in time-series analysis
is plotting the observed series, the study presents the measured parameters on graph
with the time intervals on x-axis while the time-series variables (microclimatic
parameters) on the y-axis to reveal the fluctuations and other points of interests in the
series (Dennis et al., 2012; Imdadullah, 2013). It is an interesting approach to visualise
indoor microclimatic data on psychrometric chart, although customising the chart
electronically to present measured and/or computed data-points mystifies most
researchers despite its importance in revealing the data-point positions relative to the
comfort zone (Horan and Luther, 2010). This study develops, using MATLAB
(MATLAB, Release 2012b), a psychrometric chart to visualise the data within a
customisable comfort zone with flexible ranges to present the indoor microclimate.
The data are standardised, using Z-score, for comparison of different sensor locations
at distinctive time-steps. The Z-score is estimated from equation (1) below at 95%
level of confidence (p<0.05):
(1)
Where: =Z-score, =raw score, =sample mean score and =sample standard
deviation.
The Z-score is calculated for both the indoor temperature (T) and relative humidity
(RH). In order to improve the clarity of data-point comparison, Z-score values are
often transformed to percentile score by adding 50 to the z-scores values obtained
from normal distribution table (Vincent and Weir, 2012). Referring to the comfort
zone height of 1.2m to 1.8m (Nielsen et al., 2007), the standardised (percentile) data
within the entire occupied zone was interpolated and the results presented as contour
plots to reveal the intensities and variations of the indoor microclimatic parameters
distributions.
Application of the Proposed Method to a Case Study (Case Study Selection)
The case study was selected of a book archive on one of the campuses of a public
university in Malaysia. The library building (located about 80m above sea level) was
constructed in 1989 with (presently) a total collection of about 150,000 volumes of
archival materials. There had been a growing concern by the librarys staff over the
microclimate in the level that housed the manuscript in its ability to properly preserve
the collections hence the selection. The overall size is 35.33m x 16.05m x 3.2m high
(Area = 567.05m
2
, Volume = 1814.55m
3
, and A/V ratio = 0.31). Three of the
boundary walls are located adjacent to other indoor spaces, hence only one wall is
exposed to the external ambient weather (Fig. 1). The ventilation systemcomprises of
all-air central air conditioning systemwhich controls both air temperature and relative
humidity. The library operates between 8:30 am- 7:30 pm (weekdays) and closed (on
weekends and public holidays).
3
Figure 1: Layout of the case study book archive MP-01 to MP-06 represents the
monitor points where the indoor microclimatic parameters were measured.
Data Collection
Six (6) data loggers were installed within the book archive for a period of eight (8)
days from 27/9/2013 to 4/10/2013. The data loggers were HOBO U12 from Onset
Computer Corp. They were calibrated before and after measurements to ensure
measurement consistency and reliability. The uncertainty of the measured T and RH
were in accordance with the data logger manufacturer specifications. The measurement
accuracy are 0.35C, T and 2.5%, RH with precision 0.03C, T and 0.03%, RH. To
reduce the measurement error and improve the data representativeness, time-weighted
average is employed as time-averaging reduces measurement errors - BS 6069-5.1
(British Standards Institution, 1994). The sensors logged data at every 10minutes
result in six time-steps data per hour to give a total of 1152 (i.e 6datapoints x
24hours/day x 8days) rows of microclimatic parameters. This was later reduced to 192
rows 24hrs data from day 1 to day 8 of the observation using the time-weighted
average of the hourly data.
Sample Selection and Data Analysis
Distributed into twenty-four (hours) strata in eight (days) clusters, the study adopts
stratified-clustered sampling to select a 24 hours data from the observation period to
have a daily performance overview of the microclimate. The probability sampling
approach gave each day equal chance of being selected for any of the hourly periods in
24hours. Data from the monitor points were arranged in a matrix comprised of 24
observations (time instance in rows) by 6 variables (monitor points in columns) for
each of the microclimatic parameters (T and RH). Results of the normality test (Table
1) shows that the kurtosis and skewness falls with the limits (Vincent and Weir, 2012),
hence the data normality assumption is valid. For the sample representativeness of the
population, table 2 reveals that the sample mean (x

) falls within the population mean

() range an indication that the 24-hrs sample is suitable to represent the entire
microclimatic parameters of the case study (Quirk et al., 2010; Vincent and Weir,
2012).
Table 1: Normality Test results on the 24-hrs sample from indoor microclimate of the
case study
Sensor
Locations
Temperature Humidity
Locations
Zskew Zkurt Zskew Zkurt
4
Monitor_Point1 -0.54 -0.53 -0.81 -1.61
Monitor_Point2 -1.83 0.25 -0.20 -1.45
Monitor_Point3 -0.86 -0.13 -0.98 -1.15
Monitor_Point4 -1.88 0.18 -0.41 -1.21
Monitor_Point5 -0.44 -0.91 0.46 -1.08
Monitor_Point6 -1.07 -0.23 -0.74 -1.65
Zskew and Zkurt 2.00 is acceptable ranges of normality condition at p<0.05(Vincent and
Weir, 2012)
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Existing Approach
In order to reveal the microclimate daily performance, the study presents time-series
plots of days against the indoor T (Fig.2a) and RH (Fig. 2b). It was observed that the
evolution of T and RH along the time axis is parallel for all the monitored points
suggesting a uniform microclimate distribution within the book archive. To further
check the microclimate performance with reference to preservation standards, the
microclimatic parameters is presented on a psychrometric chart (Fig. 3). From the
figure, the circles represent the mean indoor T and RH of the monitor points while the
shaded region denotes the ASHRAE (ASHRAE, 2010) comfort zone (Class A) for
archival materials with values ranging from 15C 25C and 40% 60% for T and RH
respectively. The results show that the indoor conditions operates within ASHRAE
limits. If the earlier methodologies of indoor microclimate assessment is to be applied,
it seems that the book archive conforms to ASHRAE conservation class.
Table 2: Temperature and Humidity range of values for the population from which 24-
hrs sample was randomly selected
Sensor
Locations
Temperature Humidity
Locations
Population Mean
Range
Sample
Mean
(x

)
Population Mean
Range
Sample
Mean (x

)
Monitor_Point1 20.95 21.72 21.33 42.48 44.48 43.48
Monitor_Point2 20.06 20.96 20.51 45.95 48.53 47.27
Monitor_Point3 21.22 21.82 21.52 42.32 43.95 43.14
Monitor_Point4 20.16 20.72 20.44 47.76 49.93 48.85
Monitor_Point5 19.12 20.13 19.63 45.67 49.06 47.36
Monitor_Point6 20.71 21.43 21.07 43.71 45.92 44.81
Figure 2: Time Series of Indoor Microclimate (Humidity and Temperature) of the
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Archival Building
Figure 3: The psychrometric chart showing the comfort zone and the mean (monitor
points) indoor microclimatic parameters of the archival building
Proposed Approach
Table 3 represents the standardised microclimate (part of 24hr data) magnitude which
makes it easier to compare between data-points with lower values depicts low
magnitude and vice versa. The table revealed that the microclimate varies greatly
between the monitor points across the time-steps. For instance, compare T for all the
monitor points at 8:00am, MP1 is the hottest point with value of 0.44 while the coldest
appears to be MP3 with value of -0.69; the same applicable to RH at say 9:00amwith
MP2 being least humid with lowest value of 0.21 and MP5 as the most humid point
with Z-value of 1.44.
Table 3: Table of Standardised values (Z-Score) for the indoor Microclimatic
Parameters (Temperature and Relative Humidity)
Time of
the Day
Temperature Relative Humidity
the Day MP1 MP2 MP3 MP4 MP5 MP6 MP1 MP2 MP3 MP4 MP5 MP6
8:00 AM -0.67 -0.27 -0.69 -0.53 0.44 -0.30 0.39 0.07 0.26 0.25 -0.11 0.14
9:00 AM 1.04 0.99 0.28 0.36 -1.09 0.99 0.37 0.21 0.38 0.73 1.44 0.68
1:00 PM 1.01 0.74 0.86 -0.03 1.67 0.92 0.70 0.64 0.63 1.33 -0.17 0.91
Results of the contour plots (Fig. 4 to 6) revealed hygrothermal profile stratification in
the book archive. Generally, low temperature and high humidity characterises the book
shelve area as against area close to the operation counter. At 8:00am, the archive
shows a relatively cold interior with the corresponding higher humidity (Fig. 4).
Figure 4: Indoor Microclimate distribution within the book archive at 8:00am
Figure 5, the condition at 9:00am, shows an increase in the interior temperature which
suggest increase in the heat gains from lighting and other heat sources. It also reveal a
6
highly stratified humid condition at the book shelve area with the lower right corner
being very humid.
Figure 5: Indoor Microclimate distribution within the book archive at 9:00am
In the afternoon (Fig. 6) when the external ambient condition is thermally critical, hot
region is revealed around the external wall yet the book shelve area remain relatively
colder a situation that results in higher humid condition.
Results of the contour plots further revealed an uneven hygrothermal distribution
within the book archive a consequence of not well-mixed air. From the foregoing, it
is evidenced that the mean of the micro-climatic parameters, when compared with the
standards indicates compliance as the values fall within the specified ranges. Whereas,
application of the proposed methodology shows variations in the results. This
invariably negates the assumption of well-mixed air and as such the null hypothesis
rejected. This disparity in the microclimate parameter distribution can be felt as
draught and dead-spots in temperature and humidity distributions within the indoor
space. It can also lead to mould problems which pose serious health and conservation
issue to the book archive environment.
Figure 6: Indoor Microclimate condition within the book archive at 1:00pm
The approach will be beneficial in analysing air distribution at different points within
the indoor space and therefore promises to be more beneficial for continuous
monitoring of archives and monuments preservations where uniform air and moisture
distribution is of great importance. Similarly, the approach will be useful to verify the
HVAC system performance in maintaining the required hygrothermal profile at
different locations within the conditioned space in addition to global verification that
mean comparison can offer. Lastly, one of the many benefits of CFD (computational
fluid dynamics) simulation is in the data visualisation as contour plots. The
methodology herein proposed can thus serve as a good primer to compare between
measured and simulated results.
CONCLUSIONS
The phenomenon of indoor microclimatic parameters measurement is well known and
7
documented in the literature. The output of measurement result in large volume of data
which require in-depth analysis for mining useful information in indoor air quality
assessment. Previous studies analyse indoor microclimatic data based on comparison of
averages, cumulative frequencies, frequency distribution, standard deviation, ranges
etc., to have a global comparison with the standards. Standardising raw data for
comparison at every instance provides a clearer aperture to data comparison. This
study presented an improved procedure in analysing indoor microclimatic parameters
by standardising raw data from indoor microclimatic measurements. The results shows
that when mean values are benchmarked against the standard, the indoor conditions
show conformance but reveals discrepancies in outputs from different sensors when
the new methodology was applied. The new methodology is thus useful to investigate
indoor microclimatic conditions, hygrothermal profile and other air distribution
analysis in addition to benchmarking indoor microclimate performances against
standards. Therefore, draught and dead-spots in air movements, temperature and
moisture distributions, HVAC load balancing, etc. can be assessed with more details.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The results presented in this study is part of a multidisciplinary research project
(FRGS12-067-0126) engineered towards indoor mould growth prediction using
thermal characteristics in the tropical climate buildings by the Ministry of Higher
Education (MOHE) Malaysia. The financial supports is gratefully acknowledged.
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