(above right)
One of the three boxes of tools that make up a Vital Signs Toolkit.

The Vital Signs Project, with support from the National Science Foundation and the Energy Foundation has assembled eight toolkits for loan to schools of architecture and architectural engineering. The toolkits are meant to support the field study protocols contained in the Resource Packages as well as many other field investigation methods. The equipment sets are available for loan to architecture schools for up to one year with the agreement that the equipment be used by students undertaking field studies of existing buildings. To view an illustrated list of tools that make up a toolkit, please look at this Toolkit Roster PDF file. To read case studies arising from this loan program, see the page Case Studies Arising from Equipment Toolkit Loans. For information on borrowing a toolkit, see the page Request for Proposals: Vital Signs Equipment Toolkits.

We expect that these loans will enable participating faculty to gain first-hand experience with the measurement devices and their application in student exercises. We anticipate that the experience gained in our loaner program will lead participating architecture programs to permanently acquire those devices that particularly support their curricular needs. Exceptional student case studies made possible by the loan of the equipment set will be showcased on the Vital Signs World Wide Web site.

In return for access to the equipment we ask the borrowing schools to provide insurance, pay for repairs, and provide a report documenting equipment use (including sample case studies, instructor’s evaluation, and student evaluations).

The equipment sets contain items assembled in functional units to support the Vital Signs methodology of field investigation of existing buildings. Each equipment set is composed of the following major categories.

Handheld Instruments

The Minolta Luminance Meter can be used to assess glare.

These include hand-held, portable instruments such as the illuminance meters, sling psychrometer, infrared surface thermometer, hot-wire anemometer, and CO2 monitor to make point-in-time measurements. The last three devices feature an analog voltage output that allows time-series monitoring when used with a data acquisition system.

Data Acquisition Systems

The Campbell 21X is a  powerful and flexible data acquisition tool.

Data acquisition systems are used in concert with a notebook computer interface. This combination offers relatively straightforward programming, scanning and processing of data for 16 channels. It also allows time-series measurement of geographically adjacent building parameters.

Microprocessor Based Dataloggers

The Hobo XT temperature datalogger, included in the Vital Signs Equipment Toolkit, is less than one-half the size of a floppy disk.

Microprocessor based dataloggers can offer single-channel data acquisition in extremely convenient, self-contained, low-cost systems. They can record time-series measurements of temperature, voltage, relative humidity or light intensity. Some are not much bigger than a twenty-five cent piece, enabling data collection from areas inconvenient or impossible to access with traditional measurement equipment. These devices also enable time-series data collection without complex wiring or programming.

Sensors

This current transducer can be used to measure electrical circuits..

A collection of building measurement sensors will provide readings to the data acquisition systems, recording temperature, humidity, electrical current and radiant energy.

Notebook Computer

A laptop computer is a valuable tool for analyzing measured data.

A notebook computer serves as the principal interface for the data acquisition systems and the micro dataloggers.

General Utility Instruments

This smoke gun helps students visualize airflow in architectural settings.

These handheld instruments provide a number of special-purpose functions required by specific Resource Packages. They include a smoke gun to aid in the visualization of air flow patterns and devices to allow the mapping of horizon shading obstacles. A Sony 8-mm video camera is provided as a visual note taker as well as a time-lapse recorder to capture shading patterns and variations of natural light.

A Request For Proposals for use of the tool kits is currently available

Comments to author: crisp@socrates.
berkeley.edu

All contents copyright (C) 1998. Vital Signs Project. All rights reserved.

Created: 08/14/96
Revised: 09/09/02

http://www-archfp.ced.berkeley.edu/vitalsigns/res/toolkit.html