Comparison of simplified IEQ toolkit and robust instrument data in POE field measurements

Recently mobile Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) evaluation has gained increasing interest. Hundreds of mobile apps have been developed in the market which run on smartphones and tablet PCs to support simplified IEQ assessment. Simplified IEQ tools that combine simple measurement instruments with user surveys can provide a statistically significant insight into IEQ conditions at a fraction of the cost of complex field instrumentation, while still providing the first tier of evaluation critical to field evaluation of indoor environments. We pilot tested simplified IEQ toolkit with the comparison of the robust sensors. Six simplified thermal, air, visual and acoustic sensors were tested in the post occupancy evaluation in the office building in Pittsburgh, PA. For a comparison, National Environmental Assessment Toolkit (NEAT) developed by Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Brüel & Kjær 2250 acoustic meter were utilized. The result showed that there’s no significant difference in CO2, air temperature, and acoustic level. However, the relative humidity (%) and illuminance level (lx) measurements from the simplified IEQ assessment were not adequate in terms of sensor accuracy and consistency.