CM: Comfort, Lifestyle, And User Behaviour
Introduction
👉 Click here to access the online tutorial for this module
This calculation module provides information for the user on typical summer thermal comfort requirements and expectations, typical lifestyle and user behavioural patterns that influence space cooling (SC) demand within buildings through the member states of the EU27 area. Additionally, active behavioural SC interventions and adaptive routine practices that have proven to be successful in reducing SC demand in Europe and globally are displayed.
As part of human adaptation to hot temperatures (mainly in regions in a warmer climatic zone), traditional practices passed down through generations have been mainly focused on features of the building design that helped people to live comfortably in the hot periods of the year. In the context of climate change, learning from other countries that have already adapted successful strategies can help face the new challenges in sustainable space cooling.
The information displayed in the calculation module supports sustainable space cooling strategies through the following:
- raise awareness on the passive and occupant behavioural measures which are applied successfully in a particular location,
- provide examples of successful behavioural interventions that can be implemented on a wider scale,
- provide comparison of thermal comfort expectations in different regions.
By learning from the CM results, policymakers can make more informed decisions when setting up new strategies and programs.
The module can be accessed on multiple scales: NUTS1 - NUTS3, LAU and Hectare levels. The user can select one or more territorial areas from the map using the selection tool. Regardless of the selected scale, the information returned corresponds to the Member State level.
Method
After selecting a location, the tool filters and displays the following types of information:
- traditional behavioural patterns and lifestyle choices that are adopted in the country specific climatic context, confirmed by empirical studies,
- summer thermal comfort expectations of the building occupants, demonstrated through legislative and standard based setpoints or overheating limits,
- summer thermal comfort expectations reported in empirical studies,
- successful intervention strategies that have proven to lead to increased acceptance of the thermal environment, or reduction of space cooling demand.
When selecting locations in multiple countries, the tool will display results for all of these. The user can compare different country specific lifestyle and user behaviour approaches towards the provision of comfortable thermal environment in summer, which helps policy makers in finding appropriate strategies.
The passive and lifestyle measures for coping with summer weather and high temperatures have been compiled during the CoolLIFE project. The geographical distribution of traditional behavioural practices and passive solutions is incorporated into this module from the literature. Please see D3.1 section 4.4 in more detail.
The data used for thermal expectations on the national level was collected and summarized during the CoolLIFE project, published in deliverables D3.1 and D3.2 and D4.1. Where relevant, EN standard values are diplayed in lack of country specific data.
Behavioural interventions collected and presented in the D3.2 deliverable can be displayed, filtered and presented in the results field as indicators.
Input
Traditional behavioural patterns and lifestyle choices
The user can select whether these should be displayed or not.
Thermal expectations
The user can select whether these should be displayed or not.
Behavioural interventions
The type of behaviour explains what behaviour was the subject of the intervention. This can be selected from the following list:
- thermostat setpoints,
- shading and lighting,
- adaptation,
- electricity-powered space cooling appliances,
- electricity use,
- space use.
The building type categories have been aligned with the available case studies, and can be selected from:
- residential,
- office,
- public,
- educational,
- unspecified non-residential,
- unspecified.
The intervention type categories have been aligned with the literature review done within the project, and can be selected from:
- feedback and information,
- monetary incentives,
- nudges,
- policy.
Output
Outputs are provided in the Results tab, as Indicators and Charts. Layer results are not provided.
Information for thermal expectations represented by legislative and standard values are displayed as indicators. Custom indicators are displayed for each country, aligned with the country specific legislative environment, for example, legislative setpoints values for areas with space cooling, or overheating limits for specific building types. Indicator values are stored and retrieved from the database on NUTS0 level.
Additionally, preferred indoor temperatures in summer for residential buildings, where available, are displayed in the Charts tab. The current version of the tool includes these values for Germany, France, Spain and Hungary, aligned with the availability of results from representative surveys.
For the interventions, the displayed data contains a more detailed description of the intervention, diplayed as four rows in the indicator tab:
- more detailed desciption of the successful intervention strategy,
- details on the results of the behavioural change,
- the geographical context of the case studies,
- and a link to the scientific publication of the case study results.
Sample Run
A sample run for Germany can be done as the following:
Step 1: Select a region in Germany.
Step 2: Go to Calculation Module Tab and select "CM: Comfort, Lifestyle, And User Behaviour".
Step 3: Select the types of outputs you would like to see.
The user can select the types of outputs to be displayed. If yes is selected, further inputs are needed under the 'BASIC INPUTS' section.
In the sample run the inputs are set to show all types of outputs available:
- Would you like to see how the traditional lifestyles help reduce space cooling demand? Yes
- Would you like to see country specific summer thermal comfort requirements and expectations? Yes
- Would you like to see interventions that have proven to reduce space cooling demand or improve thermal comfort? If yes, please select the types of interventions within the Basic Inputs? Yes
Since the intervention that have proven to reduce space cooling demand or improve thermal comfort within Germany have also been selected, the BASIC INPUTS menu needs to be opened to add the specific search requirements. The user in this case wants to display intervention case studies in Germany, where monetary incentives were provided in order to reduce electricity use in the residential building sector.
Figure CM - Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour, Inputs
Step 4: Select the detailed inputs for the intervention types.
Open the BASIC INPUTS field. First, the users can determine whether they would like to restrain the search for interventions that have been proven to be successful in published case studies within the country of interest, or they would like to see all case studies regardless of the geographical context.
Then, the user can filter the interventions based on type of behaviour, the type of building and the type of intervention. Users can select a specific option from the dropdown menu, or can select to display all of the interventions. In the sample run, the following inputs are selected:
- Would you like to see the interventions where case studies were found specifically in the selected NUTS0 area only?: Country specific only
- Please select a type of behaviour: Electricity use
- Please select a type of building for which interventions should be displayed: Residential
- Please select the type of behavioural intervention: Monetary incentives
Finally, the layer used for the relating the NUTS ID of a particular location to the database is displayed.
Figure CM - Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour, Basic Inputs
Based on the selected combination, information regarding the successful interventions will be displayed on the indicator tab.
Step 5: Run the CM
CM is run with these inputs.
Step 6: Check the results
Indicators are shown in the Indicators tab.
For the traditional practices two types of practices were found.
For the country specific thermal expectations the user can see, that in new residential buildings, no space cooling is considered as a baseline. The recommended indoor temperatures are between 25 °C-27 °C.
Figure CM - Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour, Output indicators
The preferred temperatures within the dwellings are provided in the Charts tab. The pie chart shows the percentage of households within the residential sector of the selected country, who prefer a certain indoor temperature within their home.
Figure CM - Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour, Outputs: Charts - Thermal expectations - empirical, pie chart
Two behavioural interventions are displayed within the Indicators tab for the given inputs, each with four rows.
Multiple countries
When multiple countries are selected, the results are displayed in a consecutive way. For example, the results for Germany and Spain will look like below:
Figure CM - Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour, Outputs: Indicators - Multiple countries
Repository of the calculation module
You can access the open-source code for this calculation module here.
How To Cite
Adrienn Gelesz, in CoolLIFE-Wiki, CM Comfort lifestyle and user behaviour
Authors And Reviewers
This page was written by Adrienn Gelesz ABUD.
This page was reviewed by Ardak Akhatova e-think.
License
Copyright © 2024-2025: Adrienn Gelesz
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International License.
SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
License-Text: https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html
Acknowledgement
We would like to convey our deepest appreciation to the LIFE Programme CoolLIFE Project (Grant Agreement number 101075405), which co-funded the present investigation.