Peoples experience of the indoor climate in wind exposed apartments

Summary, in English

Apartment buildings have been built in a wind exposed area situated close to the seaside in Malmö, Sweden. Several goals when building these apartments have been articulated, for example low energy usage, validation of the leakage factor and a satisfying indoor environment. The purpose of this study is to examine how the people living in the apartments experience the indoor climate. Their experience has been studied by a questionnaire. 201 persons have responded to the questionnaire.

The overall result in terms of indoor climate and health experience shows a sufficient experience of the indoor climate. One interesting finding is that a factor related to the air-tightness; the experience of draught stands out. The apartments have also been divided into sub-groups and one finding has been that the people in the apartments exposed to wind, the outer layer of the city block, experience a doubled amount of draught compared to the people living inside the city block and sheltered from wind. The results may also be interpretated as that if a building is planned to be built in wind exposed surroundings this issue should be addressed and that a tight building is important to build, also for indoor climate reasons.

• Author: Birgitta Nordquist; Karl-Johan Persson; Annika Hansson
• Department/s: Division of Building Services
• Publishing year: 2010
• Language: English
• Document type: Conference paper
• Topic: Building Technologies
• Keywords: Peoples experience; apartments; wind exposed; draft; questionnaire; air tightness
• Conference name: 5th International Symposium on Building and Ductwork Air-tightness
• Conference date: 2010-10-21 - 2010-10-22
• Conference place: Copenhagen/Lyngby, Denmark
• Status: Published