Influence of indoor environmental quality and dwelling satisfaction aspects on overall satisfaction: Findings from a Swedish national survey

The objective of this study is to contribute to the discussion on the impact of dwelling satisfaction aspects (size, standard, layout, appearance/aesthetics, well-being, cost and area/neighbourhood) and perceived indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort, air quality, satisfaction with daylight and acoustic comfort) on occupants\u27 overall satisfaction. This article uses data from the Swedish National Survey, BETSI (2007/08). The results are representative of adults living in multi-family and single-family buildings (1597 responses/955 buildings). Linear regression models are developed with overall satisfaction as the dependent variable and independent variables: seven satisfaction aspects, four indoor environmental quality factors and all combined (eleven). An all-model explained 54.7% of the results (best performed). All the retained variables (except satisfaction with daylight) are statistically significant predictors. Satisfaction with well-being (b = 0.286) and satisfaction with dwellings\u27 standard (b = 0.188) have the greatest effect on overall satisfaction. The model with the IEQ aspects explained only 35.5% of the results. Reliability statistics (Cronbach\u27s alpha) and confirmatory factor analysis have been implemented in the dataset. The responses can be categorized into two clusters. The two clusters were significantly different across living duration, dwelling type, age category and tenure status

Indoor humidity of dwellings in a northern climate

Low indoor relative humidity has been shown to be an issue in Swedish dwellings and mostly apartments, during the heating season. Present analysis adds to the scientific literature by demonstrating a possible association between low relative humidity and particular health symptoms and complaints

Indoor humidity of dwellings and association with building characteristics, behaviors and health in a northern climate

Data from a nationwide survey on the status of the Swedish residential building stock and indoor air quality was placed in the public domain by the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning of Sweden. The current research investigates the indoor humidity conditions in Swedish residential buildings, single-family houses and apartments, assessing the measurements from the extensive BETSI-survey against adjusted relative humidity levels based on existing norms and Standards. The aim of this study is to investigate associations and correlations between relative humidity levels and multiple building and system characteristics, occupancy patterns and behaviors and health symptoms-complaints. The analysis uses 13 categorical and 9 continuous variables-parameters of the examined dwellings. Analysis shows that low indoor relative humidity is a realistic issue in Swedish dwellings during the heating season. The issue is more prevalent in apartments than single-family houses. In addition, low indoor relative humidity seems to be more extensive in dwellings with higher indoor temperature, smaller volume, higher ventilation rate and frequent airing practices, lower number of occupants, constructed mainly after 1985, in city suburbs and in the northern parts of the country. The developed multinomial logistic regression model may predict very accurately the relative humidity level of the Swedish dwellings, during heating season. This analysis offers additional evidence to the scientific literature for possible correlation of low relative humidity with specific health symptoms, complaints and disturbances

Using data-driven indoor temperature setpoints in energy simulations of existing buildings: A Swedish case study

Building energy analyses of large samples or building stocks commonly use National building stock temperature averages in their calculations. However, such averages may not be representative of the conditions in a specific building type and may mask meaningful information found at building or dwelling level. Analysis of indoor temperature data from the Swedish housing stock showed that 25% out of approximately 1000 dwellings were heated at a temperature ≥23\ub0C in wintertime. If indoor temperature management is considered as a potential energy saving measure for the building stock it may be more effective to explore implementation in these specific dwellings, than considering average temperature reduction across the entire building stock. This however would require more detailed input data on indoor temperatures. Would such an approach be worthwhile? To answer this question, two types of Swedish multifamily buildings were simulated with i) business-as-usual scenarios and ii) setpoints based on indoor temperature data from the last Swedish National Survey. The study shows that using data-driven, dwelling-specific indoor temperatures could lead to more effective decision making on indoor temperature management, targeting buildings and dwellings where temperature reduction would most likely cause the least compromise on comfort. Such a strategy however should be complementary to a wider plan of improved energy efficiency measures across the building stock

Drivers of winter indoor temperatures in Swedish dwellings: Investigating the tails of the distribution

Residential indoor climate is a key factor for occupant comfort, health and wellbeing, while also affecting the buildings\u27 energy demand. A strong focus has been traditionally placed on low winter indoor temperatures in dwellings due to their considerable health impacts. However, there is a trend towards high and stable indoor temperatures, which also have significant implications. This paper investigates the drivers of winter indoor temperatures by analysing the following three metrics of measured temperatures in a sample of 1039 Swedish dwellings: a) level, through the sample dwellings’ standardised indoor temperatures at 5 \ub0C outdoor temperature, b) daily variation, through the standard deviation of the indoor temperature and c) shape, using daily indoor temperature profiles derived from cluster analysis. The study explores the association of these metrics to building-, dwelling- and occupant-related parameters. The analysis shows that 80% of the standardised indoor temperatures were above 21 \ub0C, with one third of the latter being above 23 \ub0C, while 82% of dwellings had constant temperatures throughout the day. High winter indoor temperatures were more evident in middle-placed apartments in multi-family buildings connected to district heating and in better insulated single-family houses. High temperatures were also associated with experiencing draft from windows, too warm conditions in winter and difficulty to control the indoor temperature, but not with the overall thermal comfort assessment which was very positive in both the high and low temperature tails. Long-term adaptation effects, established norms and comfort expectations are discussed as important confounding factors in the development of residential indoor temperatures