1.0 INTRODUCTION1.

1 Background of the study The primary purpose of buildings is to provide occupants with conducive, safe, comfortable, healthy and secured indoor environment to carry out different kinds of activities such as work, study, leisure and family life as well as social interactions. A completed building must be able to perform its functions in the manner that will ensure satisfaction to its occupants in order to achieve this purpose, buildings are designed, planned, constructed and managed based on standards and specifications established by governments, professionals and experts who are supposed to have adequate knowledge of users’ needs and expectations. Studies have however shown that sometimes these standards and specifications do not conform to the changing needs and expectations of users; and thus users are not always satisfied with the performance of their buildings (Kaitilla 1993, Ukoha and Beamish 1997, Zeiler and Boxem 2008, Meir 2009). The consequences of these are manifested in building related illness and ‘sick building syndrome’ (Kian 2001), increase in the desire for remodeling or modifications or abandonment of completed buildings (Kim 2005) which cause waste of resources, time, energy and even damage to the building envelope components and the surrounding environment (Mitterer 2012). Several reasons may be adduced on why buildings perform poorly in meeting users’ needs and expectations.

The chief among them is the lack of adequate knowledge of users’ changing needs and preferences by architects and other professionals who design, construct and maintain buildings. This is obviously due to inadequate research on this subject. Meir (2009) observed that whereas designers in other fields of human endeavour spend considerable resources in examining the actual functioning and user satisfaction with everyday services and products and refining their design accordingly, professionals in the building industry do not. In the light of the above, Kim (2005) and Fatoye and Odusami (2009) suggested that one of the ways toimprove the overall performance of buildings is to explore and understand users’ needs, expectations and aspirations through regular performance evaluation. In Nigeria, existing studies (Ukoha and Beamish, 1997; Olatubara and Fatoye, 2007; Fatoye and Odusami, 2009; Ilesanmi, 2010; Clement and Kayode, 2012, Ibem 2012;) focused on the general performance of public housing in meeting occupants’ needs and expectations.

From these studies, it is established that the physical characteristics of residential buildings have a significant influence on occupants’ satisfaction with their residential environment. This implies that the dwelling unit component of housing plays a vital role in determining the quality of residential environment in particular and the performance of housing projects in general. However, only a few studies have specifically examined the performance of housing units built in public housing schemes with a view to satisfying the needs and expectations of the occupants in the Nigerian context. The purpose of a building is to provide shelter for activities carried out by the building users. The question is, do the facilities in the building perform well and appropriate for their use? A completed building must be able to perform its functions in the manner that will ensure satisfaction to its occupants and when this performance could not be met, it can cause excessive amounts of damage, nuisance or even death; disserving building owners, occupants and imposing large amounts of unnecessary costs. Building Services is that aspect of building components that deal with the provision of facilities that make such buildings comfortable, safe and convenient for human use. According to (CIBSE), Building services constitute a significant portion of money within a building.

In an average building they account for around 20-30% of the total capital cost, and on buildings that have large volumes of building services installations like laboratories, hospitals and hotels accounting for about 40-50%. In addition, they are also responsible for majority of the running costs of a building post construction. Building services play a central role in construction of any building. A building must do what it was designed to do, not just provide shelter but also provide a safe, comfortable and livable environment. Building services contribute immensely to the functionality of the building.

So, everything inside a building which makes it safe and comfortable comes under the title of ‘Building services’. A building as a basic structure only offers protection against adverse weather conditions, such as rainfall, snowfall, sunshine, wind etc. For the convenience of the users of buildings, more is required of this basic structure; these requirements include among others toilet facilities, this brings up the need for collection, transportation, disposal and treatment of waste. The need for water to make this modern toilet functional also makes it imperative to provide water. The waste generated in addition to the collection and disposal of storm water also brings up the issue of drainage systems in building. The heat generated by the sun’s radiation causes a lot of inconvenience to building users in form of raised body temperature; this situation requires adequate ventilation, good air circulation and movement.

The natural form of circulation might not be adequate hence the need for means of artificial air circulation that can only be made possible by the use of energy the most common of which is electricity. Closely linked to this is the need to provide lighting to a building. Building being basically a boxlike enclosure usually requires lighting to allow for visibility of the interior, this is only made possible by either natural lighting obtained by the creation of openings in building, or artificial lighting obtained via the use of electricity or any other sources of energy. Theforegoing basically is what services to a building are all about.

Put in a different form, building services or general services are those provisions in and around buildings that make the use of the built environment convenient for users. Imagine yourself in the most fabulous building in the world. Now take away the lighting, heating and ventilation, the lifts and escalators, acoustics, plumbing, power supply and energy management systems, the security and safety systems. You are left with a cold, dark, uninhabitable Shell. (Ref. CIBSE) Everything inside a building which makes it safe and comfortable comes under ‘Building services’. A building must do what it was designed to do, not just provide shelter but also be an environment where people can live, work and achieve.

Building services systems are the electrical and mechanical installations inside a building that provide the internal infrastructure for the proper functioning of the building. Major building services systems include: (a) Electricity supply systems. (b) Air-Conditioning systems.

(c) Lighting systems (d) Lifts and Escalators. (e) Fire services systems. (f) Drainage (g) Water services (h) Earthing system.

Post occupancy evaluation (POE) is a general term for a broad range of activities aimed at understanding how buildings perform once they are built. It is the process of obtaining feedback on the performance of building in use. The value of POE is being increasingly recognized, and it is becoming mandatory on many public projects. POE is valuable in all construction sectors, especially healthcare, education, offices, commercial and housing, where poor building performance will impact on running costs, occupant well-being and business efficiency. POE has been used by number of researchers over the years as a tool for documenting, evaluating and improving a building as well as environmental condition. Building services functionality is an important criterion in the post occupancy evaluation of any building, hundreds of POEs have been conducted on a variety of building types over the last 25 years but only few focuses on building services performance level of the occupant’s. It is important to note that building services is an integral part for building functionality in meeting user needs, if services fails building also fails that’s why much consideration is required because people stays in a building for a long hours, thus, features like internal temperature, water services, drainage system, lightning directly affect their well-being in any residential building.

POE of Building services is a useful management tool for evaluating the effectiveness of the building services systems in completed buildings, and helps identify improvement measures for implementing building projects in future. This research will be used to assess the building services performance feedback, operational systems satisfaction level of installed building services facilities and occupant’s satisfactory opinions. Through BSPOE, designers can discover how similar buildings performs once they are in use, policy makers can also apply it to help in developing and improving on the existing programmes and projects being delivered. BSPOE is also a valuable tool for assessing installed building services quality, since building designers, owners and even the government, in the case of state subsidized buildings are held accountable for the success or failure of the building and policies creating the buildings, K.C.

Lam (2004). BSPOE identifies ways people can use buildings and equipment more efficiently and more cost-effectively. BSPOE also eliminates dysfunctional and seldom-used facilities in a building and mistakes can be corrected in future design and policies, Marsh (2003). The greatest benefits from BSPOEs are determine when the information is made available to as wide an audience as possible, beyond the organization whose building is evaluated, to all sector and construction industry. Information from BSPOEs can provide not only insights into problem resolution but also provide useful benchmarking data to which other people projects can be compared, Armstrong (2008). 1.

2 Statement of the Research ProblemsBuilding services engineering installation is worth 30-60% of the total cost of a building construction. There are certain criteria that building services installation should meet up with in designing, Marsh (2003, p. 62) states that “The purpose of design is to construct a workable arrangement of technology that will deliver the technical objectives of the project.

Unlike architecture, building services must deliver the described technical performance exactly. To under-deliver leaves the client with a building that is unusable, to over-deliver leaves the client with a building that is too expensive or complex to operate”. Many building defect complaints are reported in public and privates estates buildings in Gombe, such as constant tripping off of the Power Distribution board, Neutral and Earthling failure which results in Electric shock and damaging of electrical appliances, backlash offensive 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, everybuilding 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. Conducting POE of building services in residential estates buildings will assist with the knowledge base which will be utilized by the owner of the residential estate to improve the standard of the facility. The knowledge base that the POE provides, will serve as the benchmarks for continuous improvement, instead of waiting the Post Occupancy Phase to kick and to reduce cost of recurrent maintenance. This research has the broad aim of developing a general guideline for the BSPOE practice, specifically for government and public buildings in Nigeria. The objectives were first, to review and analyze government and public estates building performance, secondly, to determine the occupants’ satisfaction level and thirdly, and to determine the correlation between building performance and occupants’ satisfaction level. 1.4 Aims and Objectives 1.

4.1 Aim The aim of the research is to carry out POE in selected residential building estates in Gombe Metropolis with a view to assessing the factors that affect the comfortability, functionality; efficiency and safety of building services installations and to generate data as an input for future installation. 1.4.2 Objectives The specific objectives of this research are; 1) Identify and rank building services POE indices and measures. 2) Perform Evaluations of Building Services installation. 3) Determine the operational effectiveness of building services installation in residential buildings. 4) To develop measure for improving services design and installation for future residential building projects.

1.5 Research Methodology The data to be use in this research to be derive from both primary and secondary sources. The primary data to be obtain through the survey method, while the secondary data to be derive from the review of literature and archival records.

The primary data to be obtain through the use of a structured questionnaire survey, oral interviews and measurements. 1.6 Scope and limitations 1.6.1 Scope The scope of this research is to evaluate building services performances of residential building and it is confined to multi blocks estate of public and private estates within Gombe and environs. The research is to cover services installations which are the technical components of building only to determine level of comfort and functionality and safety of any built facility. 1.

6.2 Limitation The study is therefore limited to; I. Narrowness of the subject. II.

Unavailability of occupant’s as at when needed. III. Availability of technical information from the occupant’s.