Adaptive comfort and climate-sensitive architecture: How occupants feel in their homes?

GANEM, CAROLINA; COCH, HELENA; ESTEVES, ALFREDO

Dublin, Irlanda

Conferencia; 25th International Conference on Passive and Low energy Architecture (PLEA 2008) Towards Zero Energy Building.; 2008

University College, Dublin.

Temperate continental climates present considerable daily and seasonal temperature variations in a range that goes from 0-15ºC in winter and can reach up to 18-36ºC in summer with a low relative humidity (30-50%). These characteristics sometimes compromise architectural solutions but also, if climatic features are taken as design opportunities, architecture can advantage of its richness. Unluckily, most of existent buildings were only designed to protect from the exterior environment often with the help of auxiliary energy, and not to work with it in an environment friendly  way. It is important to take into account that the way in which occupants evaluate the indoor thermal environment is context dependent and varies with time. That is directly related to the way occupants usually adapt to variations and how are their comfort expectations. With all of these in mind, the main issue that is addressed in this paper is to know how occupants feel in their homes. The case experience has been conducted through winter and summer surveys in the city of Mendoza, Argentina and presents interesting results related to architectural performance (previous measurements) and the sensitivity occupants have towards their own living environment. It is discovered the need to study the effect of variables such as indoor air movement and radiative temperature to understand even better how occupants feel in their homes and why. Only from there it is possible to propose sustainable solutions.