Preferred Luminous Conditions in Daylit Environment and Occupant Satisfaction for Office Buildings in Hot-Humid Climate of Malaysia: A Survey

This paper presents an overview investigation whether illuminance level in office building can meet the requirement for visual comfort and existing guideline through the survey of office buildings in hot-humid climate of Malaysia. The overview of previous researchers’ investigation in daylight distribution, availability and illuminance levels in daylit offices will integrate the people awareness on luminance environment by obtaining occupant’s feedback. The results of a survey are conducted on the occupant's response through daylight availability in open-plan office .The acceptable illuminance levels are identified from the field experiment based on a survey using SPSS and high dynamic range (HDR) image analysis . This comparative study of daylight distribution in open-plan layout between four government office buildings will show the findings on preferred window type that becomes the parameter to study the office layout and the proportion of window to gain occupant’s satisfaction. It is observed that not all the office building has achieved Malaysian Standard 1525:2007 minimum WPI recommendation of 300-400 lux when electric lights were on. More than 60 per cent of occupants which are from different age and gender showed their preference for lighting quality. It is also resulted the relationship between luminous condition with activities and attitudes of people towards windows and daylighting are identified. This resulting key will provide better understanding for the development of window opening, shading control besides will indicate the preferred luminous environment for future office building in Malaysia.