In recent times, climate conditions have become more and more harder to predict. Severe temperatures can affect not only the way we design buildings, but also affect thermal comfort of occupants. Extreme temperatures can bring health issues and decrease workers productivity, besides increasing energy consumption. In climate sensitive countries like India, where extreme temperatures happen more often, these conditions have even more catastrophic impacts. Understand thermal comfort becomes not only a key aspect of designing better and resilient buildings, but also improving quality of life of building occupants.
This study evaluates thermal comfort conditions of an office building located in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, South India, focusing on the months from January to July. Indoor and outdoor measurements have been taken, along with Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) surveys during 42 days. Thermal comfort conditions were evaluating according to ASHRAE 55 standard, aiming to bring a more scientific and evidence-based analysis of the actual thermal comfort conditions inside the building.