Smart technology for a comprehensive approach of comfort in social housing

Abstract

Comfort in social housing constitutes major social and environmental issues for housing tenants, public authorities and social housing managers. For tenants, it means living in an environment offering a minima of security, indoor comfort requirement (temperature, humidity, lighting, acoustic insulation, air quality) and outdoor good conditions (property, common areas, green space, parking) at affordable conditions. For the public authority and social housing managers, it concerns mobilization of funding for the management, renovation and extension of “degraded” stock to meet the demand of tenants as well as environmental requirement to reduce both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission. Comfort in social housing constitutes a cause of distress for a part of the population and could be a source of conflict with managers and public authorities. This paper discusses comfort conditions in social housing and presents how this comfort could be monitored using Smart Technology.