Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the environmental quality of existing hospitals in Shillong based on Daylight (and view) and thermal comfort. Both Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to perform this research. Quantitative method is used to investigate the daylight, temperature and relative humidity in the selected hospitals which include statistical and graphical techniques using field investigations and computer simulations. Qualitative method is used through visual survey. The hypothesis is that maximizing the amount of daylight helps reduce the amount of artificial light and, depending on the climate also helps with temperature control to achieve thermal comfort for a more sustainable hospital and that older hospitals would have a higher level of daylighting and thermal comfort. This study has two major purposes, first is to investigate the daylight and thermal comfort parameters in the existing hospitals and second is to investigate the factors affecting these two parameters. The results indicate that older building does perform slightly better in the aspects of daylighting only. The immediate outcome of this study is a list of parameters affecting the daylighting and thermal comfort in the existing hospitals and based on this, generic guidelines are developed for architects to incorporate appropriate daylighting and achieve thermal comfort in the architectural design of hospital including to support architectural decisions. This study was created as a basis for the development of recommendations for designing healthcare facilities for a cold and humid climate of Shillong and, as a result, should be used to achieve more effective healing environments.
Keywords: Daylighting, Healing Environment; Sustainalbe Hospitals, Thermal Comfort