odour from soil waste
odour from soil waste, leaking pipes in the toilet that causes moisture on the building
walls and inadequate water supply and storage provision and poor waste disposal methods.
Hence, Building Services Post-Occupancy Evaluation (BSPOE) can be seen as a multifaceted
tool to be adopted in solving problems of building services and facilities management in a
building, as it evaluates the performance of buildings and facilities systematically. BSPOE can
also be seen as a systematic way to collect data and information on a particular building
services installation performances. Among the benefits that can result from BSPOE is the
identification of successful standard design features that can be scrutinized repeatedly (Watson,
2003), identification of problems to mitigate or reduce accidents or disaster that can occur due
to installations error or sub-standard works, improvement of building services performance and
environment, identification of redundant or omitted building services features and
empowerment of users to negotiate building issues and reduce maintenance works and cost
(Vischer, 2002; Hewitt et al., 2005).
Hundreds of POEs have been conducted on a variety of building types over the last 25 years,
but all this researches focuses on general building defects while commensurate works have not
be done on building services.
Buildings have started using latest advances in information technology to enhance the way they
work and to deliver new standard of performances and profitability. There is tendency now for
people to go for intelligent building in order to have functional and efficient satisfactions of the
installed facilities which are control by computer and intelligent network.
There are Building codes and standards which set out the rules and regulations that all the built
environment must adhere to when designing and installing building services facilities that
makes them fit for human use for all new and refurbishment work and if these facilities fails the
building fails that’s why much consideration must be given to them. This system can be applied to identify problem areas in existing buildings, to test new prototypes and to develop guidance
and criteria for future facilities. The building should be designed with the aim of producing a
high-quality interior environment so that the health and safety of the occupants are not
compromised.
When considering purchasing a house or apartment or any dwelling for residence, one of the
major issues should be that it is electrically safe to live in. To this end personal safety and that
of other residents should be assured in the knowledge that all appliances, electrical systems and
components are functioning correctly. This safety aspect if checked on a regular basis also
combines to save the purchaser in energy costs during the lifetime of the system.
The problem this research wants to solve is to define means of tracking performances of these
installations since there is no enough practical information on operational function of installed
facilities in residential estates in Gombe State and to generate information as feedback
mechanism to the designer and explore how this can be made on regular features in building
construction industry to become in comparative that buildings to follow suits.
The outcome of this research is to provide information to the building industry about buildings
in use and abilities to determine how well a new concept of POE of building services works for
the government and public sector.
1.3 Significance of the Study
Current literature indicates that the poor condition of domestic mechanical and electrical
installations throughout Europe has raised concerns in respect of the safety of the
owner/occupier. The awareness of the public in regard to mechanical ; electrical safety seems
to suggest that a greater understanding may be needed and further input from the institutional
bodies in charge of mechanical ; electrical regulations be intensified, Noel Masterson (20I2).
The greatest danger of under-maintained electrical installations is fire. An investigation of the
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (UK) from 17 April 2008 to 8 December 2008 showed
that 79% of the accidental primary fires were caused by faults in the electrical installation
(Leonardo Energy, January.2010)
Building Services Post-occupancy evaluation (BSPOE) of buildings is vitally needed to ensure
that building perform its function and life of occupants and the appliances or the installed
facilities are safe and sustained after the building has been occupy. BSPOE of buildings is of
utmost importance in building performance evaluation, as it comprises the technique that is
used to evaluate whether a building meets the user’s requirements and possess ability to
perform function it was originally designed for. By using occupants as a benchmark in
evaluation, the potential for improving the performance of building services installations is
enormous. When reviewing the safety of a domestic installation of building services there are
quality requirements which must be attained, the main starting point would be the previous and
current condition of the installation if it was ever maintained or renovated. The point being,
safety at all times must be to the forefront of the occupants thoughts. One good reason for
prioritizing electrical safety in the home is the increasing use and abundance of modern
electrical appliances. Overloading of circuits in a house is now a serious concern for most
households due to the fact that when the house was designed the electrical outlet condition was
never perceived to have the growth that it has achieved, Noel Masterson (20I2).
BSPOE is a useful management tool for evaluating the effectiveness of the building services
system in completed building and helps identify improvement measures for implementing
building projects in future. It is also use to evaluate the maintenance and performance of
buildings services installation after they have been occupied. In addition, BSPOE provides a
mechanism for understanding the mutual interaction process between buildings and users’
needs and for recommending ways of improving the environment necessary to accommodate
these needs. Building Services Post Occupancy Evaluation involves systematic evaluation of
opinion on building services installation of buildings in use, from the perspective of the people
who use them and the provision of facilities in the buildings that make such buildings
comfortable, safe and convenient for human use. It assesses how well buildings match users’
needs, and identifies ways to improve building design, performance and fitness for purpose.
Having BSPOE as a measuring tool in any building will be able to detect which elements in
building performs or which elements in building underperforms and affecting the user’s
satisfaction and productivity, according to Riley, (2006), POE is used to consider the extent to
which a building meets the needs of its end-users while also recognizing ways in which design,
performance and fitness for purpose can be enhanced same also applied to BSPOE.
It is important to conduct a POE of building services installation in the residential building or
any other building so that the results can be used to gauge the level of satisfaction of designers,
occupants and owners of the building, and to determine whether the occupants are happy or
not. As the purpose of the building is to serve the needs of the occupants and it is critical that
the building should be evaluated from time to time to ensure that it is serving its intended
purposes. The building is an immovable asset, and it is affected by external factors such as
exposure to the climate, which leads to the necessity for maintenance.
Building should be designed in such a way to provide an environment where people can feel
comfortable, work, live and achieve. To have a satisfactory building services installation, every
building must follow design criteria which are the explicit goals that a project must achieve in
order to be successful, but in most cases the reverse is the case. Building services have certain
design criteria given by regulatory bodies such as CIBSE (Chattered institute of Building
services Engineers), National Building code, ASRHAE (Association of refrigeration, heating
and air condition engineers), British Standard (BS Standard) est., which serve as the
benchmarks against which success or failure in meeting design intent is measures in building
services, it is also a basis against which to evaluate success without any challenges.
This research will be of significance to the owners of public and private housing estates and
occupants, shedding light on the need for adequate provision of building services installation in
line with regulatory body guideline to serve end users better and provide comfortability and
safe environment. It will also provide a mechanism for understanding the mutual interaction
process between buildings services facilities and users’ needs and for recommending ways of
improving the environment necessary to accommodate these needs. It will serves as a tool to
account for building quality because M & E services installation is what makes building to
achieve the purposed it was designed for.
BSPOE is used not only to determine clients’ or users’ satisfaction, but also to fulfil other
objectives, including determining recurrent building services defects, supporting design and
construction criteria, supporting performance measures for asset and facility management,
lowering facility life cycle costs by identifying design errors that could lead to increased
maintenance and operating costs, clarifying design objectives and improving building
performance. The idea of BSPOE is to establish in relations the problems arising from the
building industry, more especially in the care facilities such as mental hospital, nursing homes,
school residence and residential buildings and estates.
