A thermal comfort model for high-altitude regions in the Ecuadorian Andes

Of Ecuador's 3.75 million households, 33% live in poor-quality and substandard dwellings. Construction standards provide metrics and criteria for energy and comfort performance evaluation; that plays a significant role in designing adequate and affordable dwellings. Due to a lack of supporting evidence, the thermal comfort criteria have been adopted from international standards, such as ASHRAE 90.2:2018. In the absence of accurate contextualised comfort models, building standards can trigger a combination of wasting energy and exacerbating discomfort. Furthermore, householders' environmental perception may be affected by particular weather and geographical conditions. Therefore, this research aims to define thermal comfort criteria, aligned with residents' perception in subtropical highlands, to be used for the thermal performance assessment in dwellings in the Ecuadorian Andes. The research combined cross-sectional thermal comfort surveys and thermal performance simulation. Data was collected in three locations between 2400 and 3000 meters above sea level. This thesis's main outcomes add knowledge on why and how people adapt to high-altitude locations. Thermal comfort temperatures are significantly different across the study locations due to altitude. Moreover, the comfort temperature differences also rely upon the broader limits of comfort acceptability for lower altitudes and acclimatised subjects. On the contrary, the range is narrower at higher altitudes and non-acclimatised residents. The derived high-altitude thermal comfort algorithm for the Ecuadorian Highlands resulted from the regression of the comfort temperature and the 24-hour mean outdoor air temperature. Over 80% of comfort hours were estimated for the study archetypes based on the high-altitude comfort model. International comfort models consistently overestimate the percentage of hours of discomfort for all the study archetypes. Moreover, the discomfort could increase up to 30% for dwellings in compliance with the thermal insulation requirement of the Ecuadorian construction standard (NEC11). The research outcomes are expected to contribute with grounded evidence to the development of local construction policy

Evaluating assumptions of scales for subjective assessment of thermal environments – Do laypersons perceive them the way, we researchers believe?

International audienc

The untapped potential of causal inference in cross-modal research

Cross-modal effects have recently become a popular topic in building science. However, studies in this area frequently neglect causal inference, leading to a lack of valid causal results. To address this problem, we specifically highlight causality and its importance to cross-modal research. We present three general guidelines, and describe them using toy examples, for appropriately conducting causal cross-modal research. The guidelines originate from the methodological framework for quantitative social science by Lundberg et al. (2021). They are as follows: i) specify the theoretical estimand as the target of causal inference; ii) specify the empirical estimand that is informative for the theoretical estimand based on causal assumptions; iii) select the estimation strategy empirically to estimate the empirical estimand. In light of these guidelines, we discuss some common methodological pitfalls in current research practices that can jeopardize causal inference. Moreover, we offer certain recommendations to avoid such pitfalls. The general objective of this paper is to promote transparent causal cross-modal research by raising the awareness of causal inference in view of appropriate causality-related methodological choices

Modelos predictores de quiebra.

137 p

Quality criteria for multi-domain studies in the indoor environment: critical review towards research guidelines and recommendations

The perception, physiology, behavior, and performance of building occupants are influenced by multi-domain exposures: the simultaneous presence of multiple environmental stimuli, i.e., visual, thermal, acoustic, and air quality. Despite being extensive, the literature on multi-domain exposures presents heterogeneous methodological approaches and inconsistent study reporting, which hinder direct comparison between studies and meta-analyses. Therefore, in addition to carrying out more multi-domain studies, such investigations need to be designed, conducted, and documented in a systematic and transparent way. With the goal to facilitate and support future multi-domain studies and their meta-analyses, this work provides (1) a range of criteria for multi-domain study design and reporting (i.e., defined as quality criteria), and (2) a critical review of the multi-domain literature based on the described criteria, which can serve as guidelines and recommendations for future studies on the topic. The identified quality criteria encompass study set-up, study deployment and analysis, and study outcome, stressing the importance of adopting a consistent terminology and result reporting style. The developed critical review highlights several shortcomings in the design, deployment, and documentation of multi-domain studies, emphasizing the need for quality improvements of future multi-domain research. The ultimate goal of this work is to consolidate our knowledge on multi-domain exposures for its integration into regulatory resources and guidelines, which are currently dominated by single-domain knowledge

Contextual differences in the perception of thermal comfort scales – the data base from a large-scale international questionnaire study

Within the IEA EBC Annex 69 on Strategy and Practice of Adaptive Thermal Comfort in Low Energy Buildings (http://annex69.org/), we are conducting an international questionnaire study related to thermal comfort scales. Our objective is the analysis of influences on the perception of thermal comfort scales. In particular, we are looking at the effect of the current thermal state, peoples climatic background, and level of adaptation on the relationship between thermal sensation, thermal comfort, and thermal acceptance