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INDOOR THERMAL CONDITION IN THE AIR-CONDITIONED MOSQUE

BUILDING: A CASE STUDY DURING FRIDAY PRAYER IN MALAYSIA

Conference Paper · July 2013

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Azman Hussin Elias Salleh

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 INDOOR THERMAL CONDITION IN THE AIR-CONDITIONED MOSQUE
BUILDING: A CASE STUDY DURING FRIDAY PRAYER IN MALAYSIA

Azman H.1, & E., Salleh.2

1
Department of Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Technology, Institut Latihan Perindustrian
Jalan Pokok Jenerih, 13200 Kepala Batas, Penang
2
Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI)
University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor

Abstract

Mosque is the most important public building for Islamic religious practices. In order for the
various religious activities, such as the Friday prayer to be carried out satisfactorily, the
indoor condition of the mosque has to be comfortable. In Malaysia, it has become common
that the mosques are installed with air conditioning system to ensure this satisfactory
condition. The characteristics of indoor thermal condition and indoor air quality (IAQ) are
not often studied to gauge the level of satisfaction. This paper presents the findings from such
a study in hot and humid country of Malaysia, involving an air-conditioned qariah level
mosque known as Masjid At-Taqwa, in Kepala Batas, Penang. Ambient temperature (Ta)
increased correspondingly with peak the time of Friday prayer due to increasing heat
gain/load produced from the worshippers. Similar pattern was displayed by air velocity
movement where at peak time of Friday prayer, air velocity becomes weak at range 0.05 to
0.15 m/s. A PMV and PPD value was found to be 1.76 and 64%, respectively. Comparing the
operative temperature (OT) to comfort zone specified by ASHRAE Standard 55 (2004)
showed that the physical condition in the Mosque AC system was not within the comfort
zone boundaries. A very poor IAQ was observed in main prayer hall where carbon dioxide
(CO2) reached to maximum value of 3035.75 ppm when Friday prayer time ended.

Keywords: Thermal condition, Air Conditioning, Mosque, Friday Prayer.

Please cited this;

A. Hussin & E. Salleh (2013). Indoor thermal condition in the air-conditioned mosque building: A case during
Friday Prayer in Malaysia, 2nd National Conference of Engineering Technology (NCET) 1-2 July 2013,
Setia Alam, Selangor.Malaysia. page.170-181. ISBN 978-967-99984-3-6
INTRODUCTION

Indoor thermal comfort is an important issue in building industry. In hot and humid climate
countries, mechanical ventilation such as air conditioning system (A/C) is one of the most
common ways to maintain the desired comfort level. A lot of studies have been carried out to
improve the indoor thermal comfort especially in buildings. Al-ajmi & Loveday, (2010)
reported the thermal comfort for occupants in air conditioned building office in Kuwait,
Kwok & Chun (2003) reported the thermal comfort and acceptance level of students in the
Japanese school with different cooling techniques and Hwang et al., (2007) reported the
patient thermal comfort satisfaction in the hospital ward in Taiwan. Moreover, international
standard such as ASHRAE Standard 55, (2004) has been developed as reference and
guidance in evaluation of thermal environment specifically for Heating, Ventilating and Air
Conditioning (HVAC) system. The ISO 7730, (2005) is another international standard that is
commonly used as a reference by HVAC designers. This standard was developed in parallel
with ASHRAE Standard, (2004), which specifies methods for measuring and evaluating the
moderate and extreme thermal environments of in which human beings are exposed. A
human being’s thermal sensation related to thermal balance is influenced by the physical
activity, clothing and also the environmental parameters such as air temperature, mean
radiant temperature, air velocity and air humidity. Therefore when these factors have been
measured or determined, thermal sensation can be predicted by calculating the Predicted
Mean Vote (PMV). To extend the thermal discomfort or thermal dissatisfaction, Predicted
Percent Dissatisfied (PPD) obtained from PMV can provide the information about
percentages of people likely to feel too cool or too warm. Another side issue is when people
exposed to air-conditioned environment, the indoor air quality (IAQ) always come into
picture. This awareness is due to some of health complaints as IAQ affect the health, comfort
and productivity of the office workers (Sekhar & Lim, 2003 ; Kamaruzaman et al., 2009).

Malaysia is located within the Latitude and Longitude of 1º - 7º -North and 100º - 119º -East,
which has hot and humid climate throughout the year (Zulkifli H., 1999). The mean air
temperature is about 26.4 ºC, relative humidity range between 72% to 90%, and wind
velocity is between 0.3 m/s and 1.5 m/s. Nonetheless, the outdoor temperature during
daytime may reach as high as 38.4 ºC, which can cause high radiant temperature in the
building space, thus gives discomfort to the occupants.

In Malaysia, the official religion is Islam due to the majority Muslim. A unique building
known as Mosque or in Arabic words `Masjid’, is a very important building to the Muslim
community. Masjid is categorised under public building where religious practices take place
such as performing daily prayers, Friday prayer, Idul Fitri and Idul Adha prayers,
intermittently base on solar time. Usually, the religious practice is conducted in the main
prayer hall of the mosque either in a group or individually. The prayer that is performed in a
group is led by an Imam. Whereas the worshippers, who perform the prayer, will stand,
bowing, prostrating and sitting behind the Imam, with alignment in row (saf) and closed
contact to each other. In this situation, all of them are facing to Mecca-qibla direction. In
addition, the main prayer hall of the mosque also is used for other activities; religious lecture
or preaching sessions by the Imam or ‘Ustaz’ in the evening, and sometimes for wedding
ceremonies to declare the ‘akad’. Every Friday noon, all the male Muslims must perform the
Friday prayer at the mosque. The duration takes about an hour to complete, consisting of two
modes, Friday preaching or khutba mode and Friday prayer mode. When the Friday prayer
time arrived, the Friday preaching or khutba mode will be delivered first by the Imam.
Meanwhile all worshippers in main prayer hall are seated on the floor and listening to the
khutba. At this stage, the mosque will be fully occupied with worshippers especially in the
main prayer hall. After about 45 minutes, the khutba is end and Friday prayer will be
performed led by an Imam.

It is a challenge to achieve the satisfaction level of thermal comfort in the mosque during
major prayer modes such as the Friday prayer. Therefore, it has become common that
mosques in Malaysia are installed with air conditioning systems to provide cooling and better
thermal comfort to the worshippers. However, there is limited research report on thermal
comfort in the air conditioned mosque buildings. Thus, the objective of this study is to
characterize the indoor thermal condition for an air conditioned mosque during the Friday
prayer in Penang, Malaysia.

METHODS

Indoor thermal condition is evaluated in main prayer hall of one air conditioned mosque
during Friday prayer in November 30, 2012. Measurements of indoor microclimatic
conditions were made with a mobile meteorological station known as Multi Station Thermal
Comfort Real Time Monitoring System (MSTCRTMS). The MSTCRTMS station includes
sensors for the measurement of dry-bulb air temperature (Ta ; °C), globe temperature (Tg ; °C)
wind speed/air velocity (V; m/s), relative humidity (RH ; %) and also carbon dioxide (CO2 ;
ppm) representing the IAQ condition. Air velocity, air temperature and relative humidity are
measured using function probe of KIMO CTV100-ANA300. Globe temperature was
measured using globe thermometer consisting of thermocouple wire held at the middle of the
230 mm-black globe ball. Carbon dioxide was measured using infrared gas sensor. All
measurements were connected to ADAM View Software Version 4.30.004, the thermal data
logging system. All physical data was recorded at 10 minutes intervals, starting time at 12.00
noon and lasting till 15.00 PM in the evening, synchronized with Malaysian standard time.
All equipment set-ups have been tested and calibrated before evaluation started. The
MSTCRTMS station was installed at a height of 1.1 m above from floor level and located at
fixed position in main prayer hall (between saf 6 & 7). The height level proposed by
ASHRAE Standard 55 (2004) for light activity-standing/sitting, is almost suitable condition
to worshippers during Friday prayer activity. The metabolic rate value used in this study was
estimated to be 1.3 met as recommended by ISO 7730 (2005), for near sedentary physical
activity. The cloth assemblies for worshippers were observed to be variaties during the Friday
prayer. Thus, the clo value for worshippers were estimated base on cloth assemblies
references in ISO 7730 (2005). Indoor climate data will be used to determine the mean
radiant temperature (MRT) and operative temperature (OT) using standard equation (Mc
Quiston F.C, Parker, J.D & Splitler, J.D., 2005). Furthermore, PMV and PPD values are
determined using software CBE Thermal comfort tools for ASHRAE-55 (Hoyt Tyler et al.,
2012). The CO2 level will be compared with IAQ Code of Practice, Department Occupational
Safety & Health Malaysia (2005).

SAMPLE AND DESCRIPTIONS

An air conditioned mosque building, namely Masjid AT-Taqwa, Kepala Batas, Penang
Malaysia was selected in this study. The GPS reference coordinate is at Latitude 5.5170
°North and Longitude 100.2600 °East. The mosque was built in year 2004 and was
constructed based on square plan. The total built-up area of main prayer hall is 640.1 m2 and
wall height is 6 metre (Table 1). In general, there are 4 basic external walls. Each wall has an
area of 151.8 m2. One of the walls (Westward-facing), is oriented toward the direction of holy
city, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This wall is basically a solid wall and described as a qibla wall.
This wall, contains the mihrab where the Imam is located during prayers. Adjacent to the
mihrab is the mimbar, located at the right side and elevated 1.5 metres above floor, where the
Imam delivers the Friday Khutba. The wall facing Northward, is built with two sliding doors
for entrance and six windows. The wall facing Southward, is built with two sliding doors for
entrance and three windows. The wall facing Eastward, is built with four sliding doors for
entrance and also with three windows. The door dimension is 1.83m x 2.2m each. For
windows, it has a frame dimension of 2.2m x 1.6m and built in with four sliding leaf. All the
windows are installed for ventilation purposes. The mosque has a roof that is constructed
together with one big dome, located at center of the main prayer hall. The main prayer hall
can be occupied by approximately 800 worshippers at one time. The floor area is finished
with carpet that has built in a pattern for the saf, parallel to the qibla wall (Westward). The
distance between of each saf is about 1.06 metres. Figure 1 illustrates the external view of the
mosque, the MSTCRTMS position and the worshippers with their assembly cloth condition
in main prayer hall of Mosque AC building.

Imam in Mimbar
MSTCRTMS Position

Mihrab MSTCRTMS Position

Worshippers condition in main prayer hall listening to

Khutba mode delivered by Imam before Friday prayer
mode.
MSTCRTMS station located
between saf 6 & 7.

Figure 1: View of mosque & worshippers with their assembly cloth in main prayer hall

The mosque has been installed with 32 horse power air conditioning systems (split unit type-
celing exposed model) and supported by 15 units of wall fans to distribute cooled air into the
surrounding spaces. The temperature of the air conditioning units were set at 21 °C and fan
motor speed running at maximum level. During the operation of the mechanicals system, all
windows and doors were fully closed. The mechanicals system estimated operation time is
about 110 minutes to provide the cooling and comfort to worshippers. The cloth assemblies
for worshippers were observed to be of variety. The most common cloth worn by the
worshippers were similar to western cloth such as normal shirts and trousers. Another cloth
type observed is the Malay traditional dress cloth assemblies (consistings of malay shirt, with
kain pelikat) and Arabic dishdisha (overall long sleeve cloth) with kain pelikat. During
Friday prayer, the overall clo value were estimate in between 0.420 to 0.890 and mean value
is 0.553 clo. All the information as indicated in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Sample A/C Mosque physical data

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The yearly (2003-2012) mean outdoor temperature (To) and relative humidity (RH) for
Butterworth Meteorology Station is 27.65 ºC (min=27.1 ºC; max=28.2 ºC) and 80.8%
(min=78.3%; max=81.3%), as reported by the Meteorological Department, (2012). Figure 2
shows the results of ambient temperature (Ta) against RH in main prayer hall during Friday
prayer for location AC. 30 minutes before the Friday prayer begin, Ta and RH were slightly
reduced to 26.9 °C and 77.2 %, respectively. When Friday prayer started (13.00 PM), Ta
slowly increased up to 30.9 °C until Friday prayer time ended. However, the RH remained at
level of 77%. The rise in temperature was due to the heat gain/load produced by the
worshippers occupying the main prayer hall.

Figure 2: Indoor ambient temperature VS Relative humidity during Friday prayer

Figure 3 shows the Ta against air velocity (V). At the beginning, the main prayer hall was
effectively cooled as Ta was reduced and had good air movement. When Friday prayer started
at 13.00 PM, the air velocity become weak ranges from 0.1 to 0.15 m/s only. Ta on the other
hand, began rise and caused the main prayer get warmer. It was observed that worshippers
started to fill up the main prayer hall slowly according to the saf while waiting for the Friday
prayer to start. When the prayer time was almost in sight, the main prayer hall was fully
occupied. The packed main prayer hall caused the ambient temperature to rise.

Figure 3: Indoor ambient temperature VS Air velocity movement during Friday prayer

The average of CO2 level in the main prayer hall is shown in Figure 4. At the beginning of
A/C systems and fans operation, the CO2 level was within the range as suggested by DOSH-
IAQ standard (2005). Starting at 13.00 PM-14.00 PM, the CO2 increased up to 3,000 ppm;
while the air velocity was becoming weaker. This condition showed that the increasing
occupation of the main prayer hall affected air movement at the measurement level, while the
increasing number of people increased the CO2 production within the hall. One of the factors
contributing to this situation was the fully-closed windows and doors.

Figure 4: Average carbon dioxide VS air velocity movement during Friday prayer

The pattern of indoor climate is presented in Figure 5. At the beginning stage of A/C system
and fans operations, MRT was slightly higher compared to operative and ambient
temperature. When Friday prayer started, all the temperature readings were observed to have
almost similar pattern, rising slowly until prayer ended. This is also due to the increasing
outdoor thermal conditions.

Figure 5: Average ambient air, outdoor air, mean radiant (MRT) and operative temperature
(OT) in the AC Mosque during Friday prayer

A summary of all the parameters measured during Friday prayer time using A/C system and
fans observed from 13.00 PM-14.10 PM are given in Table 2. The average indoor air
temperature and relative humidity were 28.96 °C and 79.3 %, respectively. The air velocity in
the main prayer hall was 0.21 m/s, mean radiant temperature (MRT) and operative
temperature (OT) calculation values is 30.31 °C and is 29.63 °C, respectively. The
acceptance of indoor climate from PMV and PPD view is only 1.76 and 0.64. The CO2 level
is observed with average of 1,410.6 ppm which is almost 45 % over the DOSH limit.

Table 2: Summary indoor climate during Friday prayer time-with A/C system & Fans
(13.00 PM-14.00 PM)

Comparing the OT to comfort zone specified by ASHRAE Standard 55, shows that the
thermal condition in the A/C Mosque was not within the comfort zone boundaries (Figure 6).
The PMV value is found to be 1.76 and PPD is 64 % which implies that the condition in the
main prayer hall during Friday prayer time was warm.
 Figure 6: Operative temperature on ASHRAE Standard-55, comfort zone boundary using
software CBE Thermal comfort tools for ASHRAE-55
(Proposed by : Hoyt Tyler et al., 2012).

The ASHRAE Standard 55, comfort zone boundary is considered not suitable to be applied
for Malaysian people due to different climatic condition (Nicol, 2004). Therefore, Abdul
Malek Abdul Rahman, (2000) has adjusted the comfort temperature range to suit the
Malaysian people and their climate. Using the later to compare the results, it is found that the
main prayer hall fall within the comfort zone boundaries for Malaysian people.

The findings of this study is in comformity with the findings by Al-Homoud et al., (2010) for
an A/C Mosque in Saudi Arabia. Worshippers presence is considered as an internal heat load.
Observation showed that the main prayer hall of the A/C Mosque was fully occupied
especially when Friday prayer started. When worshippers were sitting/standing too close to
the MSTCRTMS station, the surrounding temperature will rise due to heat from the human
body and reduction of the air movement. Additionally the A/C system with capacity of 32
horsepower and supported by 15 wall fans to provide comfort was insufficient to produce the
cooling load demands.

CONCLUSION

Based on the finding from objective measurement for A/C Mosque indoor thermal condition,
it can be concluded that indoor thermal condition in this A/C Mosque building did not fall
within the comfort zone of ASHRAE Standard 55 but did fall slightly in comfort zone for
Malaysian people in terms of mean Ta and RH values, only. Poor IAQ in the main prayer hall
was caused by carbon dioxide which exceeded acceptable level. Further study is needed to
evaluate and determine the actual thermal sensation of worshippers in A/C Mosque during
Friday prayer.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We are gratefully acknowledgement to Tuan Haji Abdul Rahman, Tuan Haji Ir. Ahmad
Zakiyuddin, committee members and worshippers (Jemaah Muslim) from Masjid At-Taqwa,
Bertam Indah Kepala Batas and Tuan Haji Mohd Sukimi bin Mat Salleh, Director of ILP
Kepala Batas for their continuous supports and permission during conducted the research.
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