Building Characteristics

Building 4 was a two-storey building, with a central atrium, high-bay workshops on the south, laboratories on the western and southern ground floor, and mostly offices on the northern and eastern sides. It also had two computer labs, a kitchenette for staff, administration offices for the engineering faculty and a couple of classrooms. Hence, it is a multi-purpose building with a variety of users including academic, executive, technical and administrative staff, students, and intermittent external visitors. The total floor area of the building was 5440m2.

163 The building was an amalgamation of a number of older buildings, dating from 1959, and a more recent extension built in 1992. The building characteristics, envelope construction, finishes and design parameters are summarised in Table 7.1. An overall view of the east wing façade of the building is shown in Figure 7.1.

Table 7.1 Overview of the base case university building.

Location Wollongong, -34.40° latitude, 150.88° longitude

Building type Higher education building with mixed usage (offices, laboratories, and

classrooms).

Floor area (m2) 5440, of which 1476 was conditioned and 2675 was unconditioned

space. Floor height (m)

Ground floor-to-suspended ceiling height was 2.75 m high, while the height of the 1st Floor was 2.7 m. The two suspended ceilings were 0.59 m and 0.4 m, respectively.

Glazing fraction ~25% of the gross wall area.

Building Construction

External walls were a mixture of double brick and pre-cast concrete panels with plasterboard as interior surface.

There was a 150mm-thick concrete slab for the ground floor and a 190mm-thick concrete slab for the first floor.

Roof was metal deck on steel rafters.

Suspended ceilings with ceiling tiles and an air gap.

Metal-framed windows have 3mm clear single glazing. The external façade has fibre-cement sheet sunshades mounted on steel frames. Carpet throughout the offices, classroom, computer labs and circulation spaces, while hard-flooring was present in the wet laboratories and exposed concrete floors in high-bay workshops. Appendix B shows the floor plan of Building 4 with the different uses).

Figure 7.1 Building 4 east wing façade. 7.2 Experimental Equipment

A summary is presented in Table 7.2 of the equipment used and experimental measurements conducted to assess the local weather conditions and the building performance in terms of energy consumption, water consumption, indoor environmental

164 quality (IEQ), envelope tightness through the infiltration rate and qualitative analysis of the building fabric thermal performance via thermal imaging. Examples are shown in Figure 7.2 of the equipment used to assess the performance namely a water meter, power meter, the data logger where the thermocouples and the instruments of the weather station were being logged and the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) instruments. The location of the measurement sensors is summarised in Figure 7.3.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 7.2 Equipment employed to assess Building 4 performance a) water meter at a

whole-building level, b) power to monitor the different circuits from one of Building 4’s distribution boards, c) data logger and multiplexer with the connected cables of the sensors (thermocouples and weather station instruments) and d)IEQ instruments (i.e. temperature, humidity, CO2 and lux levels).

165

Table 7.2 Summary of experimental measurements.

Assessment Measurement/Scope Measurement type

Sample

interval Date Measurement equipment Accuracy Weather

conditions

rain fall, outdoor temperature and relative

humidity, wind speed, wind direction logging 5-minutes

14st February 2013 to date

rain gauge, hygrometer, anemometer,SP-110 pyranometer (McVan Instruments 2006; Amalgamated Instrument 2001; Campbell Scientific 2005; Apogee Instruments 2013) En er g y

electricity-building level logging hourly year 2013

Secure Sprint electricity meter ;

data acquired from UOW DASH Portal (§5.2.1)

Class 1.0 Power at one distribution board level with a total

of 30 circuits, i.e. office circuits included lighting, general power outlets, kitchenette,

amenities and services (HVAC).

logging 10- seconds 3rd to 10th March

2014 power quality analyser PW3198

voltage: ±0.1% of nominal voltage vurrent: ±0.2 % reading ±0.1 % f.s. active power: ±0.2 % reading. ±0.1 % f.s.

Water water-building level logging hourly Year 2013

water meter V100(PSM-T); data acquired from UOW DASH

Portal (§5.2.1)

minimum flow rate: ±5% transitional flow rate: ±5%

Ind o o r en v iro n m en ta l q u a li ty Th er m a l Co m fo

rt _{indoor temperature for three offices logging 5-minutes} 1st November 2011to date

type-K thermocouples data logger and multiplexer

AM416

±0.5 °C indoor temperature and humidity (40 locations) logging 15-minutes 18

st _{November 2013}

to 23rd Jan 2014 iButtons A

±0.5 °C ±0.5% indoor temperature (10 locations) logging 15-minutes

19th December 2014 to 19th February 2015 iButtons B ±0.5 °C ±0.5% Air Quality

total volatile organic compounds (TVOC)

spot-check 18 th December 2013 3MTM Quest EVM-7 environmental monitor ± 5% CO ± 5% CO2

IAQ probe 0632 1534 used in conjunction with Testo 480

± 75 ppm (0 to 5000 ppm CO2)

Acoustic

comfort acoustics A-weighted sound pressure level ± 2dB

visual

comfort illuminance levels illuminance meter Testo 480 ± 6%

Envelope

air tightness test spot-check 3h-5h/test 15th February 2014 RetrotectTM blower door Fan flow ±3% thermal imaging spot-check December 2013 Testo 890-2 0563 0890 V2 IR

Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera

±2 °C, ±2 % of m.v.(±3 °C of m.v. at -30 to -22 °C)

166 LEGEND

Air Quality spot check measurements Acoustic and light levels spot check measurements

Temperature and Humidity logging iButton A Temperature and Humidity logging iButton B Temperature thermocouple logging

Blower door test Power Consumption monitoring Thermal Imaging

Air-conditioning upgrade implemented in 2011 HVAC upgrades conducted in 2010

167

Figure 7.3 Monitoring plan for ground floor and first floor of Building 4, with location types

of logging, spot checks measurements and tests conducted.