The window opening behavior of infant families: A case study during transition season in the cold region of China

Abstract

Window opening behavior is a common and effective way for occupants to improve indoor thermal comfort and air quality. There are many studies on the window opening behavior in residential buildings, but research on infant families is still lacking. This paper examines the window opening behavior of four infant families in Beijing and Tianjin that are located in a cold region of China during the transition season. The Kendall Tau coefficient is used to measure the correlation between behavior and environmental factors for the first time. Two types of windows opening behavior were found: i) related to environmental factors and ii) independent of environmental factors. The study reveals that the window opening probability in the living room of infant families is 70.6%, and in the bedroom is 57.2%, which is obviously higher than the existing research on ordinary residents (24.3 ∼ 43.2%). The window opening probability of infant families shows a more obvious downward trend with increasing outdoor PM2.5 concentration compared to ordinary families. Non-environmental factors, such as time of day and age of infant, also affect behavior. Based on the proposed concept of indoor CO2 driving strength (DSCO2_In), it was concluded that the variation of the indoor CO2 concentration is the result of the window opening behavior rather than a driving factor. The logistic regression model shows that outdoor temperature and PM2.5 concentration are the most important factors. This study can help us gain a thorough understanding of the window opening behavior in infant families and it can also provide data and theoretical support for of the simulation of energy consumption in infant families.