Effectiveness of Occupant Behavioral Ventilation Strategies on Indoor Thermal Comfort in Hot Arid Climate

This paper discusses the effectiveness of occupant behavioral strategies of open and close windows on indoor thermal comfort in residential buildings in the hot arid climate of Cairo, Egypt. Based behavioral survey scenarios were deduced from a questionnaire analysis in both winter and summer seasons. The behavioral scenarios were compared to the base case and were categorized into two main groups. The first group includes the based behavioral survey scenarios that were deduced from the questionnaire analysis, and the second group includes the scenarios that were suggested to improve thermal comfort if applied in the summer season. Each scenario was applied to the case study and then was simulated through the IESVE simulation software program. The effect of each scenario was investigated in winter (represented by the months that need zero cooling demand), summer (represented by the months that need zero heating demand), and spring and autumn months (represented by the months where both cooling and heating are needed).