Operational performance: Surveying occupant satisfaction (TM62)

Dr Roderic Bunn

• Publisher: The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• eBook ISBN:
  9781912034741
• Subtopic: Construction & Architectural Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

TM62: Operational performance: Surveying occupant satisfaction is one of a suite of TMs dealing with various aspects of operational performance. The other TMs are: — TM61: Operational performance of buildings— TM63: Operational performance: Modelling for evaluation of energy in-use— TM64: Operational performance: Indoor air quality — emissions sources and mitigation measuresA major concern regarding the built environment is the performance gap between design and operation. This Technical Memorandum and its companions aim to provide detailed insights into operational building performance, not only to building services engineers but also other stakeholders, such as architects, contractors, client bodies, students, and users who have an influence on the design, construction, and facilities management outcomes.A primary requirement to address the performance gap is the collection of operational performance data, which can be fed back to design teams to both diagnose issues with the current design and also to help ensure that lessons are learnt, and future designs improved.There are many facets to the performance gap, not least the segmentation of disciplines involved in the building life cycle stages. Traditionally, designers, engineers, and contractors are all involved in the building development process, but disband once the building is physically complete, leaving the end-users with a building they are unlikely to fully understand. Gathering more evidence on both the performance gap and its underlying issues can provide insights into feedback mechanisms and prioritize principal issues. It can also help policy-makers understand the trend of energy use and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and support the development of regulations. Finally, operational data are valuable to facility managers and building users in order to efficiently operate their buildings.The body of knowledge, operational performance data and best practice recommendations presented in this series of publications build on the experience of several building performance evaluations carried out in recent years including the collaborative work between UCL and TsinghuaUniversity — the 'Total Operational Performance of Low Carbon Buildings (TOP)' research project.The UK component of TOP, which was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), led to performance evaluations of the case studies presented in this series of publications.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The value of occupant surveys
• 3 Questionnaire design
• 4 The importance of context
• 5 Types of occupant survey
• 6 Conducting a survey
• 7 Response rates and sampling
• 8 Analysing survey data
• 9 Analysing free-text responses
• 10 Statistical tests
• 11 Tracking occupant expectations during procurement
• 12 Supporting methodologies
• 13 Glossary