The role of clothing in thermal comfort: how people dress in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil

Abstract Thermal insulation from clothing is one of the most important input variables used to predict the thermal comfort of a building's occupants. This paper investigates the clothing pattern in buildings with different configurations located in a temperate and humid climate in Brazil. Occupants of two kinds of buildings (three offices and two university classrooms) assessed their thermal environment through 'right-here-right-now' questionnaires, while at the same time indoor climatic measurements were carried out in situ (air temperature and radiant temperature, air speed and humidity). A total of 5,036 votes from 1,161 occupants were collected. Results suggest that the clothing values adopted by occupants inside buildings were influenced by: 1) climate and seasons of the year; 2) different configurations and indoor thermal conditions; and 3) occupants' age and gender. Significant intergenerational and gender differences were found, which might be explained by differences in metabolic rates and fashion. The results also indicate that there is a great opportunity to exceed the clothing interval of the thermal comfort zones proposed by international standards such as ASHRAE 55 (2013) - 0.5 to 1.0 clo - and thereby save energy from cooling and heating systems, without compromising the occupants' indoor thermal comfort

Occupant productivity and office indoor environment quality : a review of the literature

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature to draw an understanding of the relationship between indoor environmental quality and occupant productivity in an office environment. The study reviews over 300 papers from 67 journals, conference articles and books focusing on indoor environment, occupant comfort, productivity and green buildings. It limits its focus to the physical aspects of an office environment. The literature outlines eight Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) factors that influence occupant productivity in an office environment. It also discusses different physical parameters under each of the IEQ factors. It proposes a conceptual model of different factors affecting occupant productivity. The study also presents a review of the data collection methods utilised by the research studies that aim to investigate the relationship between IEQ and occupant productivity. The study presents a comprehensive discussion and analysis of different IEQ factors that affect occupant productivity. The paper provides a concise starting point for future researchers interested in the area of indoor environmental quality

India: Bio-climatism in vernacular architecture

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Human beings have a natural instinct for bio-climatic home building. Vernacular architecture potentially leverages on this ability while responding to the sociocultural and economic needs of a population. India is a peninsula with a long coastline. A predominantly warm country, India has about 80% of the land under composite and warm-humid climates. This chapter navigates through the bio-climatic vernacular architecture of various climatic zones of India, emphasizing the warm-humid zones. It also provides examples that imbibed the bio-climatic spirit in creating a modern vernacular

Occupant behavior in Indian apartments

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Occupant adaptation happens to be the key mechanism behind achieving thermal comfort in buildings. User's thermal adaptation is under researched in India, although it is important to understand and limit the energy use in buildings. Relying on filed study data, this chapter looks at various methods of adaptation available and in use in apartments in India. Operating windows, doors, fans, air coolers, and air conditioners (AC) was noted to be robustly correlating with outdoor and indoor temperatures and thermal sensation. Their adaptive operation was limited by many non-thermal factors. People used traditional Indian attires for thermal comfort. These allowed occupants to adapt through changing the drape (and the insulation) within the same ensemble, when the indoor temperature moved outside the comfort range

Enquiry-based learning workshop for deep learning in Middle Eastern classrooms?an action research approach

The senior year design students and I were dismayed when my linear teaching and their habitual rote learning failed in a Middle Eastern University. The gulf between the curricular objectives and our teaching-learning methods intrigued me. I turned this into an action research project that sought to answer the questions, ?What paradigm shift might we need to migrate from traditional rote learning to deep learning? What attitudinal change and philosophical beliefs would that call for in an instructor?? The search for a solution metamorphosed me from a disengaged instructor into an empathizing reflecting practitioner. It led my students to active engagement in an enquiry-based learning workshop, which significantly improved their performance. This paper celebrates the journey of our collective deep learning. It explicates how I built my personal theory of teaching praxis through critical consciousness and meta reflection. This knowledge-creation process is empowering and may draw many teacher researchers towards meta-reflexive engagement with the social systems around. These change drivers can initiate institutional overhaul to effect systemic reforms. ? 2017, ? 2017 Educational Action Research

Thermal comfort in Indian apartments

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018. Socio-political and economic drivers can be historically traced behind the apartment' evolutionary trajectory. Absence and poor adherence to norms appear to have caused thermal discomfort. It pushed occupants toward energy-intensive solutions. India needs to embrace the adaptive thermal comfort model to unburden her import-dependent energy balances. Occupant responses from real buildings underpin this model. This chapter focuses on the field studies in apartments. People in naturally ventilated apartments expressed comfort at 30.3 °C during the hot and warm-humid seasons. Thermal condition indoors varied adaptively with the outdoors. However, discomfort was high in summer. The subjects accustomed to air conditioners had lower comfort temperature. This cyclic path dependency works against India's sustainability agenda

An adaptive relationship of thermal comfort for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries: The case of offices in Qatar

Escalating building energy expenditure encourages rethinking on thermal comfort delivery in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in warm desert climate. The GCC states do not have an adaptive comfort standard, or its precursor long term field surveys. Therefore, we carried out thermal comfort field studies in Qatar for thirteen months. In ten typical air-conditioned office buildings, 1174 voluntary subjects have completed 3742 questionnaires, while their thermal environments were simultaneously being measured. We found the mean Griffiths comfort temperature to be 24.0 �C. It varied seasonally and also with the indoor temperature. Indoor Griffiths comfort temperature adaptively related with the outdoor temperature. This relationship can be used in buildings of similar nature in the GCC region. The subjects mostly felt cooler sensations. Thermal acceptance was high (82.7%). The offices had very low indoor air movement (median air speed 0.02 m/s), while 80% recorded less than 0.05 m/s. This is below the average air speed of 0.28 m/s, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers permitted. Increased air movement can effectually facilitate an elevated thermal regime, more in sync with outdoor conditions. Adopting variable comfort standards may be made mandatory to achieve the building sustainability goals of the GCC nations. 2017 Elsevier B.V.Qatar National Research Fund through National Priorities Research Program (NPRP ?7-143�2-070) funded this research. The Japan Society for Promotion of Science and The University of Tokyo, Japan provided the instruments used. The responsibility for the views expressed in this article solely rests with the authors

Adaptive thermal comfort in the different buildings of Darjeeling Hills in eastern India ? Effect of difference in elevation

Thermal comfort standards are required to provide comfortable indoor condition which has a positive effect on the occupant. However, the Predicted Mean Vote ? Percentage People Dissatisfied (PMV-PPD) model which is used to determine the indoor comfort in most of the international standards fails often, especially in naturally ventilated buildings. Several field studies were conducted elsewhere to determine the comfort condition, but very few are reported for the cold and cloudy type of climate and in hilly region. In this paper, the results of field studies conducted in 10 buildings of different types located in varying elevation are presented. A total of 2608 responses of thermal comfort were collected from 436 subjects between January and December 2015. The mean clothing insulation of the subjects were found to increase with the increase in the elevation of the location and this difference was statistically significant, t = ?94.05 (df = 2607, p < 0.001). The yearly mean clothing insulation in S0135 was 0.640 clo, K1420 was 0.722 clo, M1640 was 0.947 clo, S1950 was 1.055 clo and T2565 was 0.907 clo, respectively. Whereas, the mean comfort temperature decreased with the elevation of the location and this difference was also statistically significant, t = ?92.34 (df = 2607, p < 0.001). The yearly mean comfort temperature for the location S0135 was 28.37 ?C, K1420 was 20.59 ?C, M 1640 was 20.07 ?C, S1950 was 19.72 ?C and T2565 was 17.35 ?C, respectively, where the digits in the locations (i.e. 0135 in S0135, 1420 in K1420, 1640 in M1640, 1950 in S1950 and 2565 in T2565) represents the elevation of the location under study in meters above mean sea level. A relation of the indoor comfort temperature with the outdoor environmental conditions and with the elevation of the location under study is obtained. ? 2018 Elsevier B.V

User satisfaction and energy use behavior in offices in Qatar

The occupant behavior significantly contributes to the total energy use in buildings and its understanding is greatly needed in energy analysis/simulation studies. Uncertainties about the occupant behavior adversely affect the building performance predictability of the simulation models. As field data in Qatar on occupant energy use and behavior was unavailable, we conducted an environmental satisfaction and energy use survey in the city of Doha, Qatar in seven office buildings. Building occupants were highly satisfied with their work environments with respect to most of the environmental parameters excepting acoustics. Access to operable controls such as windows, thermostats improved their satisfaction. Subjects in private offices were more satisfied with their work environments. We noted the self-declared productivity of respondents to be high in general. It was significantly higher in offices with better occupant access to temperature controls. Noise level dissatisfaction was the highest in high partitioned cubicle offices and satisfaction was high in open plan offices. These findings provide vital design direction for new offices and environmental systems design and for managerial motivational campaigns. Practical application: Using field study data, we analyzed the occupant behavior and environmental satisfaction in offices in Doha, Qatar. The Middle East in general and Qatar in particular are known to consume enormous energy for buildings leaving a large ecological footprint. The finding of this study informs the designers of air-conditioning systems about the user behavioral patterns. Further, these findings help the building managers in designing targeted energy awareness/saving campaigns, as user motivation is vital in energy saving. ? 2018, The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers 2018.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Qatar Foundation funded this research through grant number NPRP 7-143-2-070