Survey Based Evaluation of Indoor Environment in an Administrative Military Facility

Introduction Unclassified buildings Building sector is a major energy consumer, accounting for 40% of total energy use across the developed countries (Yüksek and Karadayi 2017), (Luo et al. 2019). The energy efficiency of the existing building stock may be substantially reduced through various deep retrofit and energy renovation programs (Eliopoulou and Mantziou 2017), (Borodinecs et al. 2017). However, majority of the energy efficiency incentive programs are focused on residential and public buildings, while the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the so-called unclassified buildings is not adequately addressed by the governmental and municipal support (Borodinecs, Geikins, and Prozuments 2020). Unclassified buildings encompass variety of military structures, prison facilities, security force, police and fire station buildings (Geikins et al. 2019), (Anon 2018). Military facilities feature distinctive requirements with regards to building technical and structural design, material use and indoor environmental conditions, as these buildings serve specific purpose and the personnel occupying the premises may wear uniform or protective clothing (administrative staff, special forces, training personnel etc.), that can greatly affect their satisfaction level with thermal comfort and productivity. In order to acquire data on the actual indoor environment conditions and obtain a feedback from the occupying personnel on their satisfaction level with the indoor environment in an administrative military building situated in a special purpose military compound, a series of indoor air quality measurements (temperature, humidity, CO2 level) and a survey on indoor air quality and thermal comfort was conducted in different premises of the administrative office building. A total of 73 respondents occupying the building participated in the survey. The results of the conducted survey revealed that there is a high degree of dissatisfaction with the indoor environment in military buildings, that is attributed to inadequate ventilation and overtemperature. That matched the collected indoor environmental quality data, forming a relationship between poor energy management and poor energy efficiency, that can in turn lead to unsatisfactory indoor environmental conditions. The study reiterates the need to address the poor current technical state of unclassified building stock, emphasizes the call for developing clear regulatory requirements for newly-constructed unclassified buildings and thorough feasibility assessment for renovation projects.