Evaluation of sensors for post-occupancy building monitoring.

This paper describes a sensor overlay method, which was applied during a long-term post-occupancy monitoring campaign of an advanced naturally ventilated building. The building is a relatively deep plan university building in central London, UK, which is not air-conditioned, but instead uses natural ventilation in conjunction with passive downdraught cooling to maintain comfortable internal conditions. The building is controlled by a building management system (BMS) with sensors for temperature, occupancy and air quality. During a two-year post-occupancy study, a temporary overlay monitoring system was installed in addition to the BMS sensors. Self contained and laboratory calibrated temperature sensors were installed at key locations in order to ascertain the performance of the ventilation system, including buoyancy driven effects, thermal comfort and air quality. The paper describes the overlay sensing method. Through comparisons of data from the installed BMS sensors and the overlayed sensors, the benefits of using overlay monitoring systems in commissioning, maintenance and post-occupancy assessments are explored.