Hypothesis


Objective

Having spent a great deal of time in the space, my partner and I realized how uncomfortable this space becomes under the climatic conditions of Moscow. This building is heated by a central forced air system and has no cooling systems except for operable windows, one operable roof vent approximately four square feet in area. Student occupation especially during peak hours and fluorescent lighting create a higher cooling load than the present ventilation can handle. This building has no passive strategies for lighting, heating, or cooling. The walls and roof are not insulated and the windows are inadequate to provide either thermal gains, natural ventilation, or adequate daylight.

Our objective was to study the existing lighting and thermal conditions in the studio and present a passive solution to the existing problems. In order to improve the space we decided to focus on the following goals:


Approach

As a starting point we focused on obtaining information such as construction blueprints to help us understand the building envelope and aid us in developing a scheme for studying the building's lighting and thermal performance. Having both worked in this space for two semesters, we made some assumptions as to how the building performs and how we would focus our studies to improve the space. We knew from experience that the first floor of the building was as uncomfortably overheated as the upper floor during the spring semester. Measuring the temperature of these two spaces over an extended period and comparing the results was therefore deemed appropriate in determining ventilation between the two spaces. We also wanted to better understand the performance of the operable roof vent. We thought that by recording the temperature differential within the upper floor and roof level we could determine the effectiveness of the stack ventilation. In order to achieve an understanding of how the spaces worked over a typical work week we set the HOBO to obtain information over a period of seven days to see how variances in occupancy affected the temperature on studio days and weekends, or peak and off peak hours. To achieve an accurate outdoor temperature reading, a sensor was placed outside a north facing window of an adjacent architecture studio.


Comments to author: bruc9271@uidaho.edu