NUS School of Design & Environment - on site witness comfort report

A client from a new project in Australia took the chance and went to look and feel a TRANSSOLAR made climate himself at Singapore.
Read his statements forwarded to us by email.
Let's have his opinion speak for itself:

Date: Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 3:55 PM
Subject: Observations of NUS School of Design & Environment

Just wanted to record my observations of working out of the NUS building:

  1. External conditions were 32 degree C
  2. Relative humidity about 85% (guess)
  3. Within the workspaces I worked at, the thermal comfort monitor recorded
  4. humidity of about 53-55%
  5. temperature of 26-27C
  6. CO2 of about 470ppm
  7. There were (nominally) no other occupants in the space I was working, so no other heat loads
  8. Fans were on "low" speed (regulated by controller)
  9. No external doors were open
  10. The ceiling fans had movement sensors
  11. The mechanical ventilation produces more Oxygen when the CO2 levels increase towards 700ppm
  12. there is no outside air supply or exhaust (??). The system relies on positive pressure and air leakage
  13. Over a 20m length of building, there were 4 sets of double opening balcony doors
  14. Blings installed to all windows to control glare - manual

How did I feel:

  1. when I first walked into the space from outside, it felt cooler, like there was cool air being produced
  2. I noticed the ceiling fans provided a lot of moving air
  3. I realised that the moving air seemed to hit the ground and then rise
  4. The room acoustics were great - there are all hard surfaces with no soft furnishings
  5. ceiling baffles work really well
  6. There were no internal lights on and there was adequate light for me to work either within 3m of the window, or 7m from the window
  7. Some of the blinds were down as well (about 50%) It was not a sunny day
  8. After 10-15 minutes I was totally comfortable, not cool, not hot (I had shorts and light l/s shirt)
  9. for the next 3-4 hours I was very comfortable
  10. I enjoyed the slight breeze produced by the fan
  11. I left the space 3-4 times and went outside (5-10min). Every time I returned I felt very comfortable immediately

Comments

  1. The students are encouraged to use the space as a research project
  2. The building is 100% renewable
  3. They are currently returning power to the campus grid because they have no battery
  4. There are minimal students using the spaces at the moment
  5. The roof space is covered with PV
  6. The roof appears to be about 2x the size of the floorplate
  7. grey water harvesting; no black water treatment because it is not permitted by Govt
  8. Lots of education of the users is required to get them to embrace the 100% renewable objective
  9. -FYI signage around the building to explain the various innovative solutions
  10. removable facade panel is great idea for training the students
  11. no biophilia within the building

CLIENT
Campus Development Lead - Real Estate & Projects