Factors influencing the occupants’ window opening behaviour in a naturally ventilated office building

Window opening behaviour has become of a specific concern when it comes to the adaptive comfort analysis and evaluation. A field study of occupants’ window opening behaviour was carried out from Jan/05 to Apr/06 in a naturally ventilated office building in Sheffield’s, UK climate conditions. Window positions were recorded daily on academic semester weekdays. A total of 1620 windows’ positions in 329 days (16 months) were recorded. Outdoor and indoor physical parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed etc. were collected at the same time. The results show that manual window control, as indicated by the proportion of windows opened, has a strong correlation with: outdoor air temperature, the season of year, time of a day and occupancy pattern. Window orientation is also considered as a relevant influencing factor. Moreover, the study tests a stochastic model to predict the probability of windows being open given the outdoor temperature with promising results. Also insights are reported about behaviour in non-office spaces in the building as a whole.

► Insights are about the window use by occupants from a whole building perspective. ► We study on the factors influencing the occupants’ window opening behaviour. ► Factors such as temperature and building orientation are analysed. ► The outdoor temp. as an independent variable can predict the window opening behaviour.