This research suggests that the thermal preference of occupants is subject to change; hence, a particular thermal setting may not be able to constantly satisfy everyone. On the contrary, individual thermal control in the workplace is more likely to increase user comfort and satisfaction. This is examined through environmental measurements, comfort surveys and semi-structured interviews in two office layouts with high and low thermal control.

There is limited information available about occupant’s window opening behaviour in India. Operating doors and windows is a vital adaptation mechanism in warm climates. This paper reports on a field study which collected and analysed data on the use of openings, comfort responses and the simultaneous temperatures in Indian offices. Occupants in naturally ventilated buildings used the windows and doors adaptively as the seasons changed and the temperature varied. We found that 50% of the windows would be opened at an indoor air temperature of 30 °C, using logistic regression.

In the field of building design a rather conservative culture dominates: during the design process, standards are used to achieve physiological comfort. Physiological comfort is a necessity in order to achieve psychological comfort and eventually occupant satisfaction and overall wellbeing. To achieve occupant satisfaction and wellbeing, physiological comfort as well as psychological comfort have to be met.

Field studies have been carried out in selected Prayer Halls to address the research questions namely the impact of air conditioning on comfort of women versus men as well as on general members versus older members of a congregation, who follow universally adopted standard proceedings, and hold prayer meetings every morning from 3.30 am to 5.30 am and every evening from around 7 pm to 9 pm.  Comfort evaluations were carried out in three cities - two of which are presented here.

Building automation systems provide potential to optimise the energy consumption of buildings as well as to detect failures in the operation of buildings. Providing the occupants with control over the indoor environment is widely accepted to positively affect the occupant’s satisfaction. The system building-HVAC-automation-user is becoming more complex. So what does the term ‘perceived control’ really mean? Psychological constructs from social learning theory and personality psychology transferred to the field of personal control of the indoor environment will be discussed.

Considering school students spend up to one third of their day inside classrooms, it’s surprising how few detailed empirical studies have been conducted into how the thermal environment of classrooms affects students’ comfort and performance. Whereas PMV tends to exaggerate warm discomfort for adults, the literature suggests it underestimate children’s actual thermal sensation, but there is no coherent explanation for this in terms of metabolic or other physiological differences to date.

The objective of this paper is to assess methods of thermal comfort for use in mixed-mode office buildings located in hot-humid summer climate based on air-conditioning consumption of a predominant typology of real mixed-mode office buildings. Three methods to assess thermal comfort were analysed: (1) Givoni’s chart for hot and humid climates, (2) ASHRAE 55-2010 for determining acceptable thermal conditions in occupied spaces, (3) ASHRAE 55-2010 for determining acceptable thermal conditions in naturally ventilated spaces.

To ascertain comfort levels and effectiveness of available adaptive opportunities for classrooms in the hot-humid regions of India, a thermal comfort field study was conducted in an undergraduate laboratory class in Kharagpur. The study, carried out between January and April 2013, had participation from 121 students and yielded 338 responses. Analysis of the results showed that comfort temperatures found in the field study had close resemblance to the predicted comfort temperatures evaluated from certain existing standard adaptive comfort equations.

This paper presents preliminary data on a series of building comfort experiments conducted in the field. We performed physical in-situ measurements and solicited responses from university students in six different classrooms at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst during three seasons (fall, winter and spring). Our questions focused on the students’ perception of comfort in varied environmental (temperature and humidity, and air speed) conditions. We collected records of the students’ academic performance in the classes, correlating their comfort perceptions to their test scores.

This paper presents the first results of a field study on thermal comfort in school buildings that is been carried out in Chile, with the aim of determining comfort temperature of students in state-owned primary schools.  The paper presents the results of four schools located in Santiago, a city with low temperatures in winter and high temperatures in summer, which are typically free-running, as they have neither a heating nor a cooling system.