Max Deuble
Energy conservation/efficiency in commercial (and residential) buildings; Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ); Expert in thermal comfort and building performance/post-occupancy evaluation (POE); Green buildings and green building rating tools, e.g. NABERS and Green Star; environmental psychology, Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) and sustainable behaviour change programs
My PhD research over the last 5 years focuses on occupant comfort and indoor environmental quality in green buildings. More specifically, my thesis investigates how environmental attitudes may influence comfort perceptions and occupant satisfaction in green buildings. In other words, confirming the aphorism that green buildings need green occupants.
Supervisors: Professor Richard de Dear and Associate Professor Paul Beggs
My PhD research over the last 5 years focuses on occupant comfort and indoor environmental quality in green buildings. More specifically, my thesis investigates how environmental attitudes may influence comfort perceptions and occupant satisfaction in green buildings. In other words, confirming the aphorism that green buildings need green occupants.
Supervisors: Professor Richard de Dear and Associate Professor Paul Beggs
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2850 questionnaires were collected from both primary (grade) and secondary (high) schools. An indoor operative temperature of about 22.58C was found to be the students’ neutral and preferred temperature, which is generally cooler
than expected for adults under the same thermal environmental conditions. Despite the lower-than-expected neutrality,
the school children demonstrated considerable adaptability to indoor temperature variations, with one thermal sensation unit equating to approximately 48C operative temperature. Working on the industry-accepted assumption that an acceptable range of indoor operative temperatures corresponds to group mean thermal sensations of 20.85 through to 10.85, the present analysis indicates an acceptable summertime range for Australian students from 19.5 to 26.68C. The analyses also revealed between-school differences in thermal sensitivity, with students in locations exposed
to wider weather variations showing greater thermal adaptability than those in more equable weather districts
running mean outdoor temperature for input. Two metrics have been proposed for the diagnosis of overheating: a) % of occupied hours during which indoor operative temperature exceeds the upper limit (80% acceptability), and b) cumulated degree-hours based on an indoor operative temperature baseline of the upper limit (80% acceptability). Indoor microclimatic data was collected from these schools with simultaneous application of thermal comfort questionnaires. Data from these field studies reinforces the adoption of the Adaptive Thermal Comfort Policy, stimulating naturally ventilated buildings, increasing adaptive opportunities and behavior within these indoor environments before resorting to air- conditioning as the main provider of thermal comfort
2850 questionnaires were collected from both primary (grade) and secondary (high) schools. An indoor operative temperature of about 22.58C was found to be the students’ neutral and preferred temperature, which is generally cooler
than expected for adults under the same thermal environmental conditions. Despite the lower-than-expected neutrality,
the school children demonstrated considerable adaptability to indoor temperature variations, with one thermal sensation unit equating to approximately 48C operative temperature. Working on the industry-accepted assumption that an acceptable range of indoor operative temperatures corresponds to group mean thermal sensations of 20.85 through to 10.85, the present analysis indicates an acceptable summertime range for Australian students from 19.5 to 26.68C. The analyses also revealed between-school differences in thermal sensitivity, with students in locations exposed
to wider weather variations showing greater thermal adaptability than those in more equable weather districts
running mean outdoor temperature for input. Two metrics have been proposed for the diagnosis of overheating: a) % of occupied hours during which indoor operative temperature exceeds the upper limit (80% acceptability), and b) cumulated degree-hours based on an indoor operative temperature baseline of the upper limit (80% acceptability). Indoor microclimatic data was collected from these schools with simultaneous application of thermal comfort questionnaires. Data from these field studies reinforces the adoption of the Adaptive Thermal Comfort Policy, stimulating naturally ventilated buildings, increasing adaptive opportunities and behavior within these indoor environments before resorting to air- conditioning as the main provider of thermal comfort
Existing procedures for the assessment of the thermal environment in the fields of public weather services,
public health systems, precautionary planning, urban design,
tourism and recreation and climate impact research exhibit
significant shortcomings. This is most evident for simple
(mostly two-parameter) indices, when comparing them to
complete heat budget models developed since the 1960s.
ISB Commission 6 took up the idea of developing a Universal
Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) based on the most advanced
multi-node model of thermoregulation representing progress
in science within the last three to four decades, both in thermophysiological and heat exchange theory. Creating the essential
research synergies for the development of UTCI required
pooling the resources of multidisciplinary experts in the fields
of thermal physiology, mathematical modelling, occupational
medicine, meteorological data handling (in particular radiation modelling) and application development in a network. It was possible to extend the expertise of ISB Commission 6 substantially by COST (a European programme promoting Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action 730 so that finally over 45 scientists from 23 countries (Australia, Canada, Israel, several Europe countries, New Zealand, and the United States) worked together. The work was performed under the umbrella of theWMO Commission on Climatology (CCl). After extensive evaluations, Fiala’s multi-node human physiology and thermal comfort model (FPC) was adopted for this study. The model was validated extensively, applying as yet unused data from other research groups, and extended for the purposes of the project. This model was coupled with a
state-of-the-art clothing model taking into consideration
behavioural adaptation of clothing insulation by the general
urban population in response to actual environmental temperature. UTCI was then derived conceptually as an equivalent temperature (ET). Thus, for any combination of air temperature, wind, radiation, and humidity (stress), UTCI is defined as the isothermal air temperature of the reference condition that would elicit the same dynamic response (strain) of the physiological model. As UTCI is based on contemporary science its use will standardise applications in the major fields of human biometeorology, thus making research results comparable and physiologically relevant.
Historically, post-occupancy evaluation (POE) was developed to evaluate actual building performance, providing feedback for architects and building managers to potentially improve the quality and operation of the building. Whilst useful in gathering information based on user satisfaction, POE studies have typically lacked contextual information, continued feedback and physical measurements of the building's indoor climate. They, therefore, sometimes over-exaggerate poor building performance. POEs conducted in two academic office buildings: a mixed-mode (MM) and a naturally ventilated (NV) building located within a university in Sydney, Australia, suggest high levels of occupant dissatisfaction, especially in the MM building. In order to test the validity of the POE results, parallel thermal comfort studies were conducted to investigate the differences in occupant satisfaction and comfort perceptions between these two questionnaires. Instrumental measurements of each building's indoor environment reveal that occupants tended to over-exaggerate their POE comfort responses. Analysis of thermal satisfaction and acceptability in each building indicate that occupants of the NV building were more tolerant of their thermal environment despite experiencing significantly warmer temperatures than their MM counterparts. In discussing these results, along with participant comments and anecdotal evidence from each building, this article contends that POE does not accurately evaluate building performance, suggesting occupants can and do use POE as a vehicle for complaint about general workplace issues, unrelated to their building. In providing a critical review of current POE methods, this article aims to provide recommendations as to how they can be improved, encouraging a more holistic approach to building performance evaluation.
Drake, S., de Dear, R., Alessio, A.,(2009).