Calidad del ambiente interior de las edificaciones residenciales urbanas de la ciudad de cuenca: determinación de estándares de confort

Abstract

This research has been developed in order to analyze the comfort standards of the indoor environment of the urban houses located at Cuenca and considered some factors as temperature, air quality, natural lightning and acoustic isolation. It performed a longitudinal design that applied a combination of non-experimental methods (qualitative and quantitative) to evaluate the physical measurements and occupants’ perception of their comfort experiences. A general analysis of the indoor environmental conditions of 280 houses was completed in the first instance; a second stage included the quantification of the occupants’ subjective perceptions and the measurement of the environmental and physical variables in 8 of those houses. The international standards are compared with the occupants’ satisfaction responses in terms of their satisfaction and by means of a comparative analysis, comfort ranges are defined adapted to environmental conditions, expectations and local socio-cultural requirements. The thermal comfort range is determined through a regression analysis between the votes of thermal sensation and the interior temperature; the quality of the air is evaluated in the concentration of CO2; visual comfort is analyzed according to the levels of natural lighting and acoustic comfort by means of the acoustic insulation characteristics of the walls of the house.