Influence of building design on occupant comfort in adaptive climate zones

The responsiveness of buildings to prevailing local climate plays an important role if the dual aspects of occupant comfort and low energy demand are to be met. This study takes as example the State of Kerala in India where the Government – as part of the project titled “Livelihood Inclusion and Financial Empowerment (LIFE) mission” – plans to build more than 750,000 houses across the State, using a uniform design, irrespective of the location or climate. A previous study has identified regions with different climatic characteristics within Kerala using a method based on adaptive thermal comfort model. This study aims to understand how the building design influences occupant comfort in the different adaptive climate zones by performing an uncertainty analysis on the output metrics. The thermal comfort was assessed based on the hours requiring heating/cooling while visual comfort was assessed based on the Useful Daylight Illuminance metric. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to identify design parameters that influence occupant comfort. The results of this study will serve as a reference for practitioners during the early stages of design to achieve thermal and visual comfort for high performance residential buildings.