Piyali Debnath
ABSTRACT
A substantial volume of research has been undertaken in the domain of indoor environment and energy usage, however there is a dearth of research on assessing cognitive function in conjunction with them. This study aims to bridge the existing gap by investigating the impact of an indoor environmental quality and energy consumption of an existing naturally ventilated lecture room on intellectual performance. The 24 research participants were subjected to three scenarios each with different combinations of aperture settings and fan operation. The participants were engaged in a cognitive game called - 'Brain Training - Logic Puzzles' and asked to fill up a survey to capture environmental perception, cognitive problem and physical problems at an interval of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes and 30 minutes. Indoor environmental parameters (indoor temperature, RH, air movement, CO2 level and illumination) and thermal comfort indices (PMV-PPD) were measured using Testo 400 equipped with turbulence probe, CO2 probe, lux probe and humidity/temperature probe. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS, correlated by deploying Spearman's rank correlation test and visualized through graphs. The energy consumption pattern was observed to indirectly influence cognitive challenges confronted during the experiment, primarily by persuading illumination, temperature, temperature satisfaction, temperature perception, air movement. This study also emphasized the importance of PMV-PPD in directly influencing cognitive productivity. Further, physical difficulties such as headache, itching eyelids and dry eyes were observed to be directly correlated to cognitive performance.
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Index Terms
- Assessing IEQ Impact on Cognitive Difficulties in Educational Buildings at Varying Energy Usage
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