UTILIZING BIM TO VISUALIZE REAL-TIME THERMAL AND VISUAL COMFORT IN OFFICE SPACES

ABSTRACT An average person spends about one-third of their day in the office (Naber, 2013), consequently, improving Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) helps enhance their overall health and productivity. Therefore, Facility Management (FM) seeks ways to enhance IEQ to improve overall occupants/building performance. With a focus on finding ways to do so, this study investigates the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that measure several factors of IEQ with Building Information Modelling (BIM) to help FM make decisions based on live data to enhance building performance and user satisfaction. The study is conducted on a floor of an office building in Cairo, Egypt. Data exported from an IoT Wireless Sensors Network (WSN) is integrated and visualized in a Revit model through a Dynamo script that also compares the data to standards such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), International Standard Atmosphere (ISA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The FM team assesses the efficiency of the tool, then suggestions for improvement are presented. The results produce a user-friendly tool that integrates an IoT WSN network to a Revit model and shows the updated state and history of six IEQ parameters that could be used to ease and support decision-making for FM and improve overall building performance.