RECO2030 Building Services for Health and Safety

Introduction to Building Services

for Health and Safety

Semester 2, 2018-19 Session

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Learning Outcomes
• To know:
– The nature of a building
– Thermal comfort and health and safety
– Requirements of buildings
– The elements involved in the health and safety
(H&S) of a building
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What is a Building?
Building (建築物) includes the whole, or any part, of any domestic or public
building or building which is constructed or adapted for use for public
entertainment, arch, bridge, cavern adapted or constructed to be used for
the storage of petroleum products, chimney, cook-house, cowshed, dock,
factory, garage, hangar, hoarding, latrine, matshed, office, oil storage
installation, out-house, pier, shelter, shop, stable, stairs, wall, warehouse,
wharf, workshop or tower, sea-wall, breakwater, jetty, mole, quay, cavern
or any underground space adapted or constructed for occupation or use for
any purpose including its associated access tunnels and access shafts, pylon
or other similar structure supporting an aerial ropeway and such other
structures as the Building Authority may by notice in the Gazette declare to
be a building; (Amended 44 of 1959 s. 2; 19 of 1976 s. 32; 16 of 1978 s. 2; 5
of 1983 s. 2; 68 of 1993 s. 2; 72 of 1995 s. 15)

(Building Ordinance, Chap. 123, 30 June 2012)

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What is a Building?
• A building is:
– A structure of a considerable size that lasts for some
time
– An enclosure for the benefit of human habitation,
work, or recreation
– Or for the storage of industrial product, natural
produce, or keeping the animal (e.g. warehouse,
store, stable)
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What is a Building?
• Building indoor conditions must satisfy:
– Occupants
– Processes
of different internal spaces
• Designers need to take into considerations:
– Occupancy pattern
– Activity being undertaken
– Known fixed equipment
– Allowance for future fixed equipment
– Lighting
– Power outlets
• Health and safety (H&S) implications?
 https://www.scmp.com/property/hong-
kong-china/article/2074728/hong-kong-
6
start-booqed-targets-freelancers-and-
temporary , 10 Jan 2019 

What is a Building? http://borackabn.com/interior-design-

company-hong-kong-G52542/interior-
design-company-hong-kong-r43-on-
stunning-decoration-for-interior-and-
exterior-design-styles-with-interior-design-
company-hong-kong/ , 10 Jan 2019 ↓

• Health and safety (H&S) criteria specified by minimum

statutory requirements:
– Life safety and health conditions!
• But to achieve a comfortable indoor environment:
– Thermal comfort
– Visual comfort / conditions
– Acoustic comfort
=> Complicated by psychosocial conditions at work
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Thermal Comfort and H&S

• Depends on both:
– Environmental factors
– Personal factors
• Environmental factors:
– Can be controlled and hence specified
– Involve quality of air; air temperature; humidity; and air
supply
• Personal factors:
– Activity level
– Clothing
– Physiological conditions
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Thermal Comfort and H&S

• Air quality:
– To maintain hygienic conditions for the health of occupants
– Also for processes, e.g. food production
– Affected by both internal and external pollutants
– Indoor pollutants include chemicals; microbiological
organisms; and particulates
– Pressure regime – positive and negative pressures
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Thermal Comfort and H&S

• Pressure regime:

(Portman, 2014: pp.92-93)

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(Portman, 2014: p.90)

Thermal Comfort and H&S
• Air temperature:
– A measure of heat gain or
loss from the space
– Through heat transfer
mechanisms (=> see figure)
– Is a dynamic exchange
process
– Ranges between 21 to 26oC • Supply air rate:
• Relative humidity (RH): – Supply of oxygen
– A measure of water vapour – Remove heat; products of
content in the air respiration; contaminants;
– Low vs high RH and effects control humidity
– Ranges between 40 to 70% – To control thermal comfort
– Supply rate: 15 ltr/s/person
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Visual Conditions and H&S (Portman, 2014: p.96)

• Involves:
– Daylighting and electrical
lighting
– For both normal and
emergency situations
– Criteria of quality and
energy efficiency
• Daylighting:
• Daylighting (cont’d):
– Amount of daylight depends
on sky, externally reflected, – Perceived as desirable in
and internally reflected relation with window
components
– Window provides visual link
– High variation
– Specified as a percentage of – But, disadvantages of
luminance – minimum 2% inconsistent, glare, heat gain
and noise with large window
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Visual Conditions and H&S

• Electric lighting:
– Illuminance – the amount of
light energy reaching a
surface area (the task level)
– Colour rendering index (CRI)
– measures how good a
lamp reproduces colour
– High CRI is necessary where
accurate colour appearance
is important
– Colour temperature – the
apparent colour of the light
emitted; warmer vs cooler
colours
– Controls used to reduce
energy cost, set scenes
(Portman, 2014: p.97)
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Visual Conditions and H&S

• Emergency lighting:
– Lighting provided in the
event of normal electric ( http://remodel-ideas.com/home-emergencies/emergency-lighting-
for-homes/ , 16 Jan 2015)
supply failure
– Mainly for two purposes
– (1) Emergency escape –
minimum statutory
requirements; signage (http://www.gilbertinc.com/daymaker.htm , 16 Jan 2015)

– (2) Standby lighting –

medical environment; plant
rooms; financial
organisations

(http://www.everglow.us/?everglow=&photoluminescent=6&signs=exi
t-path-markings , 16 Jan 2015)
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Acoustic Conditions and H&S

• Acoustic performance:
– Criteria of (1) noise levels; (2) degree of privacy, and (3)
speech intelligibility
– Depends on the make up of walls, floors, ceilings,
openings, and adjacencies to other areas
– Noise and vibration from building services should not
interfere with the criteria above
– Public warning system focus on intelligibility and audibility

(http://kelengkengsegarbahagia.barenfashion.x
yz/noise-reduction-ceiling-tiles , 10 Jan 2019)
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Building services
Requirements of Buildings are mostly
concerned with
this requirement!

• Functional requirements:
– To fulfill the purpose/s of the facility
– Requirements that specify what the facility should do
– Example: a building protects occupants from harmful
weather elements such as cold outdoor environment
• Performance requirements:
– Requirements that describe how a facility should
behave and what limits there are on its functionality
– These requirements generally specify the facility’s
quality attributes or characteristics
– Example: a building maintains indoor temperature of
not more than 18oC
– To support the functional requirements!
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Requirements of Buildings
• Statutory requirements:
– To fulfill the requirements of ensuring public H&S
• User requirements:
– Any user specified requirements (=> see next slide)
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Requirements of Buildings
• User requirements:
– Functional requirements
– Performance requirements
– Other specific requirements, e.g. aesthetics, climate
control, automation, etc.
• Statutory requirements:
– Public health and safety
– Environmental impacts
– Safety during construction
– Safety during operation
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Performance Requirements
• Strength – sustain loads
• Stability – remain balanced; resisting collapse
• Rigidity – withstand deformation
• Equilibrium – achieve a balance of forces
• Serviceability – use and maintain at
reasonable cost and effort
• How about the information generated by the
building systems? Definition - Requirements
that describe how a facility
should behave and what
limits there are on its
functionality
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Statutory Requirements
• Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123)
• Building Management Ordinance (Cap. 344)
• Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132)
• Town Planning Ordinance (Cap. 131)
• Fire Services Ordinance (Cap. 95)
• Electricity Ordinance (Cap. 406)
• Waterworks Ordinance (Cap. 102)
• Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354)
• Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance (Cap. 53)
• Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (Cap. 59)
• …
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Statutory Requirements
• For example, the Building Ordinance
• Lays down the minimum requirements of
public health and safety:
– For new built – to provide for the planning,
design, and construction of buildings and related
works
– For existing buildings – to make provision for
ensuring the safety of dangerous buildings
– Confined to buildings and street works only
 Definition - Requirements 21
that specify what the facility
should do

Functional Requirements
• Enclosure
• Structural systems
• Environmental
modification systems
• Health systems
• Protection and
security systems
• Utilities systems
• People movements
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Functional Requirements
• Environmental modification systems
• Building as environmental filter:
– Basic need of maintaining constant body temperature
– Need to compensate for changes in environment
– Building envelope moderates the extreme of climate
• Modern buildings accomplish the above through:
– Many components and pieces of equipment
– Suitable design and integration of many elemental
systems
– Structural, architectural, and building services systems
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Functional Requirements
• Building services:
– “Everything inside a building which makes it safe and
comfortable to be in . . .” (CIBSE, UK)
– System is used for heating, ventilating, air-
conditioning (HVAC); illumination; electrical power
distribution, plumbing and piping; drainage; fire
protection; vertical/horizontal transportation; etc.
– The heart and nervous system of a building!
• Building services systems influence:
– Occupants health, safety, and comfort
– Occupants productivity
– Building and operating costs
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Functional Requirements

Functional
requirements

Spatial
Health Safety Utilities Costs
dimensions

Comfort – weather Prevention of

exclusion, lighting hazards – fire, Electricity,
ventilation, etc. electrocution, water, gas,
escape, etc. communication
Discharge of waste Security
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Health and Safety of Buildings

Construction Industry Institute, Hong Kong – CIIHK Model
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Health and Safety of Buildings

Building Health & Hygiene Index, University of Hong Kong –
BHHI Model
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Health and Safety of Buildings

• How to know if a building provides a healthy
and safe environment?
– Satisfy all the statutory requirements: Has the
Occupation Permit been granted?
– Are you healthy? To what extent does the
buildings affect your health and safety?
Can you tell?
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Health and Safety of Buildings

• A study conducted by Dr. Edward Yiu around
2005:
– “Determinants of health in the built environment
– A regression analysis of residents health in Hong
Kong”
– An unpublished discussion paper within the
Department of Real Estate and Construction, HKU
– An empirical test on the impacts of building
parameters on residents’ health
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Yiu 2005’s Conceptual Model

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CIIHK 2005’s Conceptual Model

Building Attribute Regression Model

Respiratory
disorder
symptoms

Comfort Health Stress level

No. of doctor
consultation
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Block and Floor Effects on Health

Summary findings of Yiu’s (2005) study:

• Male has 0.19 more consultation count
• Increase in one year of age is associated with 0.004 more
consultation count
• One floor higher has (slight) 0.007 less consultation count
• Residents in HYE Hse (the least polluted block) have 0.26 less
consultation count
• OPA Hse is the base set = 0
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CIIHK Report – Preferred Features

Building Parameters Preferred Features Willingness to pay more

1 Building orientation Facing south 8.75%

2 Views Facing sea view 11.05%

3 Window size 4.5 x 1.5 m2 5.37%

4 Balcony With balcony 4.03%

5 Ventilation With cross-ventilation 8.41%

6 Flat size > 1,100 feet2 (102m2) 16.71%

7 Floor level Higher but not highest 6.17%

8 Headroom 10.1 – 10.5 feet (3.2m) 6.25%

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Selected References
• Bass, B., Economou, V., Lee, K.K.C., Perks, T., Smith, A. S. and Yip, Q. (2003). The
interaction between physical and social psychological factors in indoor environmental
health. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 85(2), 199-219.
• Burberry, P. (1997). Environment and Services, 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education.
• Chadderton, D.V. (2004). Building Services Engineering, 4th ed. London: Spon Press.
• CII-HK (2005). Research Publication – Solutions Implementation of Healthy Buildings in
Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
• Erlandson T., Cena K., Dear D.R. and Havenith, G. (2003). Environmental and human
factors influencing thermal comfort of office occupants in hot-humid and hot-arid
climates. Ergonomics, 46(6), 616-628.
• Leung R., Lam C.W.K., Chan A., Lee. M., Chan .I. H.S., Pang S.W. and Lai C.K.W. (1998).
Indoor environment of residential homes in Hong Kong - relevance to asthma and
allergic disease. Clinical and Experimental Allergy, 28(5), 585-590.
• Portman, J. (2014). Building Services Design Management. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley
and Sons.
• Takano, T. and Nakamura, K. (2001). An analysis of health levels and various indicators
of urban environments for Healthy Cities Projects. Journal of Epidemiology Community
Health, 55(4), 263-270.