A protocol for longitudinal monitoring of individual building occupants and their environments

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 9; p. e0274015
• Main Authors: Coulby, Graham, Clear, Adrian K, Jones, Oliver, McDonald, Suzanne, Godfrey, Alan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 23-09-2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Air circulation; Air flow; Air pollution; Air quality; Airtightness; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Building design; Buildings; Computer and Information Sciences; Earth Sciences; Ecology and Environmental Sciences; Energy consumption; Engineering and Technology; Environmental changes; Environmental effects; Environmental factors; Environmental monitoring; Environmental perception; Environmental quality; Evaluation; Geospatial data; Health aspects; Indoor air quality; Indoor environmental quality; Indoor environments; Internet of Things; Longitudinal studies; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Performance measurement; Personal health; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Physiological responses; Renovation; Research and Analysis Methods; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Social Sciences; Study Protocol; Tenants; Australia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274015

Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy consumption across the European Union, so there is a requirement to strive for better energy performance to reduce the global impact of urbanised societies. However, energy performant buildings can negatively impact building occupants (e.g., comfort, health and/or wellbeing) due to a trade-off between airtightness and air circulation. Thus, there is a need to monitor Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to inform how it impacts occupants and hence redefine value within building performance metrics. An individualised study design would enable researchers to gain new insights into the effects of environmental changes on individuals for more targeted e.g., health interventions or nuanced and improved building design(s). This paper presents a protocol to conduct longitudinal monitoring of an individual and their immediate environment. Additionally, a novel approach to environmental perception gathering is proposed that will monitor environmental factors at an individual level to investigate subjective survey data pertaining to the participant’s perceptions of IEQ (e.g., perceived air quality, thermal conditions, light, and noise). This protocol has the potential to expose time-differential phenomena between environmental changes and an individual’s behavioural and physiological responses. This could be used to support building performance monitoring by providing an interventional assessment of building performance renovations. In the future it could also provide building scientists with a scalable approach for environmental monitoring that focuses specifically on individual health and wellbeing.