Airflow utilization in built environment in hot-humid area of China (1): Behaviors and motivations

Airflow is an effective way for people in hot-humid area of China to improve their thermal environment in summer. Through the field survey on 32 college students in their naturally ventilated dormitories, obtains their behaviors to utilize airflow and analyses the behind motivations. The results show that with motivations of both thermal environment and air quality, openings of windows and doors grow linearly and slowly with new effective temperature, and with single motivation of thermal environment, frequencies of using fans increase rapidly and sharply with new effective temperature. The present study provides reference for the design of natural ventilation and electrical fans, and also the simulation of building thermal environment and building energy consumption.