Experimental assessment of thermal comfort and indoor air quality in worship places: The influence of occupancy level and period

ABSTRACT

Worship places represent a unique type of buildings due to their functionality, dense occupancy, intermittent use, roof geometry, large inner space, and consumed energy of cooling/heating systems. In addition, thermal comfort and indoor air quality are decisive keys that affect the psychological and physiological conditions of occupants as well as their activity level and working efficiency. Though, a scarce number of studies focused on investigating the indoor conditions of worship places. Thus, a mosque located in Bahrain was selected to examine the influence of the occupancy level and period on thermal comfort sensation and indoor air quality. The readings of air temperature, humidity, air velocity, and CO2 concentration were recorded during real several occupancy levels and periods during the summer season. The measured findings of PMV and PPD metrics indicated that the social distancing between worshippers, during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, causes a feeling of coolness under the existing cooling system. Meanwhile, the 2-h occupancy period produced a 75% increment of CO2 concentration, 55% during 1-h occupancy, and 20% during half an hour occupancy. Therefore, the air-conditioning systems of worship places should be reconsidered in terms of ventilation rates and partial operating to provide comfortable conditions that accommodate different occupancy levels and periods.