While looking at the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, we became curious about the thermal comfort of occupants on the second floor, which was a rehabilitated space originally built over one hundred years ago, compared to the thermal comfort of occupants on the third floor, which was a new level completed in 2001. Some of the questions we wanted to investigate were:

1. What are the thermal conditions on each floor?

2. On which floor are people more comfortable?

3. What are the differences in the HVAC system on each floor, and are they performing differently?

4. Are there other issues that might cause the second and third floors to have differing thermal conditions?

These questions led us to the following hypotheses:

2. The northeast corner of the 2nd floor HVAC must heat more often and at higher temperatures than the northeast corner of the 3rd floor to maintain the ASHRAE thermal comfort zone.