Eleventh International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Buildings’ energy performance depends on technical and human factors. Occupants’ interaction with windows and blinds significantly impacts buildings’ energy demands. Contextual factors influence occupants’ behaviors to control their indoor environmental conditions. The Theory of Planned Behavior demonstrated that beliefs about the expected outcomes associated with the behavior drive human behavior. This research hypothesizes that spatial factors: orientation, floor level, and space type influence occupants’ beliefs of operating windows and adjusting blinds to control their indoor environmental conditions. Two surveys were conducted in summer and winter to identify occupants’ behavioral beliefs of operating windows and adjust blinds in multifamily residential buildings. A total number of 103 and 104 responses were collected from the summer and winter surveys, respectively. The binary logistic regression showed that occupants of north-facing apartments were more encouraged to adjust their blinds to allow natural light into their spaces during summer. First-floor units’ occupants believed that the benefits of operating windows and adjusting blinds outweighed their drawbacks. In summer, occupants were not encouraged to open their windows due to the hot weather in living areas. Also, noise concerns were less in living areas compared to sleeping areas. In conclusion, this research proves that spatial factors such as orientation, floor level, and space type significantly impact occupants’ behavioral beliefs of operating windows and adjusting blinds in residential buildings. Thus it is recommended to consider spatial factors in the early stages of the design process to enhance the building’s energy performance and improve occupants’ satisfaction.