Indoor Thermal Comfort Consistency Index: Proposal of a new approach for evaluating thermal quality in residential buildings’ design

Delivering thermal comfort to the inhabitants is one of the main functions of buildings but the application of the standard models to residential buildings presents some challenges: the statistical approach does not work and the users have a great number of adaptive opportunities. The most difficult parameters to simulate during the design phase are the ones linked to the inhabitants’ habits and preferences, which often leads to a bias in the energy performance simulation. In this paper the Indoor Thermal Comfort Consistency Index (ITCCI) for residential buildings is introduced: it measures the consistency in delivering constant indoor thermal conditions regardless the variables depending on the inhabitants. The index is calculated through a series of simulations in which the parameters of natural ventilation, internal gains and blind utilization vary between a lower and an upper limit. A case study is presented to evaluate the use of the index on four buildings of the DHOMO project. This index may be a useful tool for designers and could contribute to bring the industry towards the construction of more resilient buildings that are able to provide comfort conditions to a wider range of inhabitants.