The authors conducted a large-scale study in Hong Kong on the indoor environment in high-rise office buildings. The indoor environmental quality assessment covered thermal, indoor air, visual, and aural comforts. The assessment had two parts--physical measurements by laboratory grade instruments and a survey of subjective responses. However, the approach of study requires sophisticated instrumentation together with an intensive questionnaire. Based on the experience gained from this comprehensive study, a portable indoor environmental quality logger has been developed as a tool to more conveniently assess the indoor environmental quality by building operators, occupants, and facility managers. This instrument incorporates sensors for measurinG essential physical parameters. In addition, switches are provided on the front panel to allow occupants to record directly their sensation votes on the acceptability of their immediate microenvironment, focusing on four indoor environmental qualifiers and the overall acceptability. The physical parameters and the subjective responses are all automatically logged for analysis. This indoor environmental quality logger not only provides an easy method for assessment of the indoor environment, but it can also be used as a diary logger for detailed analysis of localized problems in the indoor spaces. This comprehensive environmental quality concept can be further developed to a control algorithm for HVAC systems.

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