The significance of indoor thermal comfort on occupants’ perception: in university buildings in Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

ABSTRACT Any building creates a unique micro-environment. Educational buildings tend to offer a wide range of purposes, with more operational functions than most other buildings. This paper focuses on the occupant’s experiences of Indoor Thermal Comfort (TC) in educational buildings in Auckland, New Zealand. The TC can impact the occupant’s experience and thus affects student learning. This survey-based study examines users’ experience of the educational building’s comfort levels. The collected data from educational building users (n = 109) was analysed to evaluate the relationship between the perceived experience and the building’s function. The key findings of the survey were: (a) Identifying TC as the most significant factor that directly impacts the occupants’ mood or mental state, even when compared to more cognitive factors; (b) Identifying the lecture room as the most critical space for occupants’ thermal perception; and (c) the deviation between the preferred and experienced mental state, in the selected campus were relatively matching. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of educational buildings by quantifying the impact of TC on the occupant’s experience.