Solving Building Occupant Discomfort At The Design Stage

Following the occupants discomfort in a lecture theatre, the consultants JDP Ltd planned a refurbishment of the hvac system.

They asked BSRIA to investigate and analyse the problem in the original design and predict conditions in the proposed new design. The analysis of the results for the original design revealed that under full occupancy cold air descended on the front of the audience and short circuited to the extract causing stuffy conditions at the back of the audience.

In the new design BSRIA identified that the problems of short-circuiting and stuffiness were eliminated, but supply diffusers needed to be carefully selected to avoid setting up draughts in the occupied zone.

Working closely with the consultant and combining the expertise enabled the whole team to modify the design and overcome the problem before real life implementation.