Quantifying occupant's adaptive actions for controlling indoor environment in naturally ventilated buildings under composite climate of India

Abstract

Occupant's adaptive actions (like windows opening, use of blinds and use of ceiling fan) have a strong effect on indoor environment. Only a few models of these actions exist and are solely based on indoor and outdoor thermal environments. This leads to large discrepancies between the actual and predicted indoor environment. There is no such study prevails in India and this highlights the need to investigate the occupant's local adaptive behaviour using the actual field data. The present study has developed adaptive behaviour models that relate window opening behaviour, blind use behaviour and fan use behaviour to the environment conditions in naturally ventilated buildings under the composite climate of India. Field measurements of adaptive behaviour actions and environmental conditions were conducted in thirty-one naturally ventilated buildings. The occupant's adaptive behaviour models were thus governed by various explanatory variables. In window opening behaviour model, the indoor and outdoor air temperatures, indoor air velocity, indoor lighting level and indoor CO2 were important governing variables. In blind use behaviour model, the indoor lighting level, indoor air velocity and window state were significant governing variables and in fan use behaviour model, the indoor air temperature, indoor air velocity and window and blind states were the most influencing variables. The occupant's adaptive actions were mostly governed by the pursuit of comfort and primarily driven based on the change in indoor environment rather than outdoors. Occupant's behaviour patterns of adaptive controls use were consistent with the literature and can be used for simulating the built environment in naturally ventilated buildings.