Drivers and barriers to occupant adaptation in offices in India.

Occupant window-opening behaviour in Indian offices is a nascent field. This paper relies on the thermal comfort field study data from 28 Indian offices in Hyderabad and Chennai. Occupants in naturally ventilated buildings used the windows and doors adaptively as the seasons changed and the temperature varied. We found that 50% of the windows would be opened at an indoor air temperature of 30 °C, using logistic regression. We noted some non-thermal factors possibly affecting the adaptive operation of controls as well, including: design and construction, operation and maintenance, environmental, sociocultural, attitudinal and behavioural factors. A window's potential for modifying the comfort temperature hinges on the effective handling of these hurdles. We further categorized the barriers into those in the occupant's realm and beyond. Each category is further identified with the extent to which the barrier interferes with the control as an adaptive opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]