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Germán Molina trained as an engineer in Chile and has recently completed fascinating research posing the question ‘what is comfort?’ at Victoria University in Wellington. Having come from ‘the warm side’ of engineering, Germán has long had an interest in energy efficiency. He didn’t expect to be researching human behavior and social science.
We have the Technology
In previous work, Germán combined open-source technologies such as EnergyPlus and Radiance to provide really useful tools for predicting energy use and preventing overheating in buildings. At least he thought these tools would be useful. “We have more technology than we use” Germán explained. He was confused and perhaps a little frustrated that his great integration of solar shading and energy demand analysis was not more widely taken up by designers.
Demand for Comfort
Germán started to wonder if perhaps we know enough already about the physics of how buildings work. He decided to look at other fields of science to find out what drives the demand for comfort in homes.
“A house is not a normal product” observes Germán. We’re reminded almost daily of the housing ‘crisis’ and our overinflated market. We ‘invest’ all the money we can get our hands on, into a house, says Germán, but all the things that will make a difference to comfort, are invisible.
Germán became interested in how factors compete and compare, such as location, size and school zone.
What is Comfort?
Germán feels that building scientists and designers tend to complicate comfort. This is partly because comfort is so much more than just temperature, light and humidity. It’s complicated by the human factor. “Our understanding of comfort doesn’t resemble what people really want”, says Germán. Just because we define it in spreadsheet, doesn’t make it true.
In the real world, comfort is part physiological and part psychological. It is subjective, and therefore hard to define in engineering terms.
Atlas of Comfort
To help himself organise and visualise the qualitative survey data he collected, Germán developed the ‘Atlas of Comfort‘ which he’s made available to others. It’s a fascinating overview of the factors involved with real estate decision making.
Health Comfort and Freedom
While Germán didn’t research the question specifically, he speculates that’s there’s a correlation between comfort and health. What he did conclude is that comfort is freedom.
Quality of life is more of a driver than energy efficiency, discovered Germán and he encourages real estate agents to think about thins.
Trade-offs
Trade-offs are the idea that people chose one thing over another, for a given reason. For example here in New Zealand, people don’t like opening windows in summer because of insects (among other reasons). In Chile, says Germán, people are equally hesitant to provide passive ventilation with windows, because of safety concerns. For people involved in writing the code, this should be considered. Germán asks a very valid question about our build code. Is the assumed reliance on people opening windows to provide a level of fresh air for ventilation, realistic?
Common Comfort
Another outcome of Germán’s research is that discovered we’re more alike than different, no matter where we live.
“Humans don’t get used to -25℃”, says Germán. Like most animals, we seek or build shelter. It’s just that in some countries the shelter we build is more effective than in others.
See more of Germán’s work and resources at https://buildingsforpeople.org