Thermal comfort conditions in sustainable buildings – Results of a worldwide survey of users’ perceptions

The users’ perceptions of thermal comfort in 36 sustainable commercial and institutional buildings in 11 countries have been investigated. This paper describes and analyses the users’ overall perceptions of temperature and of air quality in both summer and winter, and in particular whether they found conditions hot or cold, stable or variable, still or draughty, dry or humid, fresh or stuffy, or odourless or smelly. The results from these analyses indicated a good degree of satisfaction with internal thermal comfort conditions overall. The temperatures and air quality factors of these buildings proved to be better, on average, than a set of more conventional buildings However, conditions were perceived to be on the cold side in winter and on the hot side in summer. This indicates that more attention must be given to these aspects of design and operation.