<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The influence of people on building performance is becoming increasingly significant. Including users’ perspective in decision-making and design processes could help to improve occupants’ well-being and the feasibility of interventions by providing more accurate information about heating preferences for energy models. Furthermore, understanding residents’ level of thermal satisfaction could enable more appropriate measures to be taken to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. This study aims to define an indicator that measures the level of thermal satisfaction of social housing occupants so that it can be contrasted with other methods of analysis of perceived comfort and can be replicated in different building contexts. A way to analyse occupants’ thermal satisfaction is proposed in a quantitative way, measured as the difference of the desired temperature and the perceived indoor temperature. The index was applied to a sample of 283 social housing dwellings in the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained via surveys that include questions on thermal comfort in winter and households’ characteristics. Furthermore, the indicator was compared to other variables, such as household income and energy expenses, to observe behavioural trends and possible cases of energy vulnerability. The obtained variable provides occupants’ opinion and perception to ensure the suitability of the solutions for improving the energy efficiency of the building and the thermal comfort. It is also possible to apply it to different building typologies and compare the results with other models of perceived thermal comfort.</p>
</abstract>

The influence of people on building performance is becoming increasingly significant. Including users’ perspective in decision-making and design processes could help to improve occupants’ well-being and the feasibility of interventions by providing more accurate information about heating preferences for energy models. Furthermore, understanding residents’ level of thermal satisfaction could enable more appropriate measures to be taken to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. This study aims to define an indicator that measures the level of thermal satisfaction of social housing occupants so that it can be contrasted with other methods of analysis of perceived comfort and can be replicated in different building contexts. A way to analyse occupants’ thermal satisfaction is proposed in a quantitative way, measured as the difference of the desired temperature and the perceived indoor temperature. The index was applied to a sample of 283 social housing dwellings in the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained via surveys that include questions on thermal comfort in winter and households’ characteristics. Furthermore, the indicator was compared to other variables, such as household income and energy expenses, to observe behavioural trends and possible cases of energy vulnerability. The obtained variable provides occupants’ opinion and perception to ensure the suitability of the solutions for improving the energy efficiency of the building and the thermal comfort. It is also possible to apply it to different building typologies and compare the results with other models of perceived thermal comfort.

Evaluation of Thermal Comfort Perception in Social Housing Context

Environmental and Climate Technologies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Evaluation of Thermal Comfort Perception in Social Housing Context"}

The influence of people on building performance is becoming increasingly significant. Including users’ perspective in decision-making and design processes...

Evaluation of Thermal Comfort Perception in Social Housing Context

Published Online: Jul 05, 2023

Page range: 289 - 298

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2023-0022

Keywords
Built environment, occupant perception, satisfaction, social housing, thermal comfort

© 2023 Silvia Perez-Bezos et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Evaluation of Thermal Comfort Perception in Social Housing Context

Published Online: Jul 05, 2023

Page range: 289 - 298

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2023-0022

KeywordsBuilt environment, occupant perception, satisfaction, social housing, thermal comfort

© 2023 Silvia Perez-Bezos et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Built environment, occupant perception, satisfaction, social housing, thermal comfort