Indoor comfort and adaptation in low-income and middle-income residential buildings in a Nigerian city during a dry season

Abstract

This paper investigates occupants' comfort, adaptation and their responses during the dry season in low-income to middle-income residential buildings in Abuja, Nigeria. The study aims to provide empirical data on occupants' comfort through evaluating 171 households in four different locations in Abuja. The study considered a combination of different research methods for data collection. Post-occupancy surveys were used to evaluate the buildings and residents' adaptation within the thermal environment. Thermal comfort surveys were also carried out in eight low-income residential households to assess occupants' perception of the thermal environment. Based on the short duration of the physical measurements, building simulation was also used to examine thermal comfort of occupants for an extended period. The Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) results revealed over 70% of the occupants were dissatisfied with their thermal environment. The comfort surveys reported similar results with over 65% of the responses revealed being ‘uncomfortably warm’. The results showed an overall mean temperature of all the measured case studies to be 31.7 °C and the average temperature (predicted) of 30.7 °C. The neutral temperatures were in a range of 28°C–30.4 °C compared to the preferred temperature range of 27.5°C–29.4 °C. The prevalence of thermal discomfort highlights the need to explore the possibilities of reducing internal temperatures, particularly by passive means (fabric, shading, insulation etc.) given the need to avoid or reduce the need for air conditioning to make the buildings energy-efficient for low to middle income groups.