Window opening and blind usage patterns in a naturally ventilated office building: to what extent does user behaviour compromise potential building performance?

James, P.A.B., Jentsch, M.F. and Bahaj, A.S. (2006) Window opening and blind usage patterns in a naturally ventilated office building: to what extent does user behaviour compromise potential building performance? In World Renewable Energy Congress 2006. Elsevier Science..

Abstract

Building occupants can essentially adapt to changed environmental conditions in two ways, either by a personal change (clothing, activity, occupied place) or by an adjustment of the surrounding environment according to their demands for comfort. Adaptation of the sur-rounding environment can either be achieved through the use of mechanical devices such as heating, cooling, mechanical ventilation and automated solar shading devices or by passive means such as solar shading through individual blind usage or window ventilation. However, failure in operation of either, active and passive systems can result in a compromised working environment. This paper assesses window opening and blind usage patterns of a typical, naturally ventilated ‘international style’ office building in the UK and relates this to the users’ perception of the indoor environment. The results show that behaviour patterns and user perception do not always match and are often out of phase. The potential impact of this mis-match on building performance and human comfort is evaluated by comparative simulations of the real and an ideal control situation. Measures of how to address this problem are dis-cussed, focussing on how to support intuitive environmental control without changing the basic shading and ventilation concepts.

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Contributors

Author: P.A.B. James

Author: A.S. Bahaj

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