Thermal Comfort and Energy Assessment in Mass Custom Prefabricated Buildings
- University of Utah
Published in Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024), edited by Ali GhaffarianHoseini, Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, Farzad Rahimian and Mahesh Babu Purushothaman. Springer Nature, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, volume 591, 2025, pages 713 to 723. DOI 10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_69.
Abstract
This study investigates energy usage and thermal comfort in 116 innovative and mass custom prefabricated buildings. The case studies are residences of different prototypes in the western part of Europe. The buildings have average U-values of 0.12 W/mK2 (external walls), 0.17 W/mK2 (roofs), and 1.70 W/mK2 (windows). The study examined the performance of selected buildings from different orientations in summer and winter. The investigation addresses two research questions. (1) Can mass custom prefabricated buildings provide thermally comfortable indoor environment? (2) What about the energy assessment of the buildings compared to conventional buildings? The methodology includes thermal comfort surveys and post-occupancy evaluation (POE). Actual energy data were collected. The study analyzed over 218 questionnaires retrieved from the participants. The findings revealed the mean indoor temperatures ranged from 22.6 ℃–23.7 ℃ and 17.5 ℃–19.3 ℃ in summer and winter, respectively. The mean sensation is around the neutrality in winter while the respondents feel much warmer (4.5 out of 7.0) in summer. The neutral (Tn) and preferred (Tp) temperatures were 0.3 ℃ and 4.3 ℃ higher in winter than the values reported in summer. For the POE, higher thermal acceptability and satisfaction rates were noted in winter than the votes for summer. The mean annual gas usage varied from 10,496 kWh–12,114 kWh. The study recommends further research on energy assessments at the design phase of buildings. This approach will aid our understanding of various design interventions that can improve the overall performance of buildings.
Keywords
Session
Presented in Track F, Friday 8 November 2024, 16:30 to 18:30, room WA 224 B, Auckland University of Technology. Session chair Dr Mani Poshdar.
How to Cite
Adekunle, T. O. (2025). Thermal Comfort and Energy Assessment in Mass Custom Prefabricated Buildings. In A. GhaffarianHoseini, A. GhaffarianHoseini, F. Rahimian, & M. B. Purushothaman (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024) (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Vol. 591, pp. 713–723). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_69
About the Conference
Presented at SASBE 2024, the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, held in Auckland from 7 to 9 November 2024 and chaired by Professors Ali and Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, founders of GDI Academy. The version of record is published by Springer Nature; this page is the conference archive record kept by GDI Academy.