Importance of thermal comfort for library building in Kuching, Sarawak

Malaysian Government takes an initiative to provide library in housing areas to improve the quality of human capital. However, the government has to evaluate every aspect of their provision to ensure the services provided meet the demands of the users, including the aspect of thermal comfort in the building. For this study, a library constructed using Industrialised Building System (IBS) are selected for thermal comfort evaluation. The data were analyzed using Corrected Effective Temperature (CET) index. From the data analysis, it shows that thermal comfort in the library could not be achieved most of the time unless when the mechanical cooling is used. A series of technical design improvements are then recommended to improve the thermal comfort inside the library by incorporating construction details without increasing the cost. Copyright © 2013 International Energy and Environment Foundation All rights reserved.