Human thermal comfort for residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter region, a user based approach

Improving the overall performance of residential buildings means exploring and understanding users' needs, expectations and aspirations, as these greatly affect human comfort, health and well-being. This paper investigates thermal comfort conditions, based on quantitative measurements of typical residential multi-story apartment buildings in Palestine, and a qualitative survey of inhabitants' satisfaction with the indoor environment of their apartments. From these data, average perceived comfort indices (APCI) were calculated. The survey shows that inhabitants of each building have different comfort conditions, especially in summer, according to the orientation of the space. Sunshine, air exchange and temperature are perceived as the most influential parameters for apartment comfort. Although the APCI shows a good level of comfort globally, most inhabitants very often feel hot in summer, mainly during the day, and cold in winter, mainly at night. Measurements confirm that inside air temperature always remains below 16 degrees C in winter, below the comfort level. In summer, it remains between 25 and 32 degrees C, outside the comfort zone. The perceived comfort level seems more related to the inhabitants' feeling of powerlessness than to real thermal conditions.