Perceived and predicted acoustic comfort in university classrooms in the framework of the overall indoor environmental quality monitoring

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) monitoring is state of the art in many new buildings to optimize their energy efficiency and improve the comfort and performance of the occupants. This study focuses on the IEQ monitoring and perceived comfort in four newly built university classrooms of the same size but with different façade orientation. IEQ monitoring was performed in summer and winter periods by means of devices mounted on the internal walls of the classrooms, while a questionnaire collected students' feedback. Objective and subjective data were processed to obtain a percentage of predicted and perceived comfort, respectively, for each domain. For acoustic comfort, A-weighted sound pressure level (SPL) was collected during the lessons and a minimum threshold was set to ensure a speech-to-noise ratio of 15 dB. A correction based on experimental data was applied to obtain the SPL at the center of the room from the SPL flush to the wall. Results revealed a good agreement between perceived and predicted acoustic comfort and that students were more satisfied with the acoustic and visual domains than with thermal and air quality. Perceived thermal comfort resulted strongly dependent on the classroom façade orientation, despite no difference was highlighted between the objective data.