Natural Ventilation and Body Heat Comfort: An Evaluation of Residents Satisfaction in Ogbomoso, Nigeria. (Published)
This study evaluates the variations in the level of natural ventilation in houses across the three main residential density zones of Ogbomoso. The study employs two approaches. First, it surveys the perception of residents with respect to the body heat comfort in their houses. Second, it examines the window opening sizes for compliance with floor areas considered desirable for effective natural ventilation in a warm humid climate like Nigeria. The main objective is to validate residents perception of body heat comfort through the assessment of window opening to floor areas ratio. The methodology employed is the multi-stage sampling procedure where houses are sampled from sampled streets, and a household head sampled from each house, such that the perception of residents and evaluation of window and floor areas ratio are both carried out on the same household and house, respectively. The result shows that residents’ satisfaction as well as window to floor areas decreases with residential density zones.
Keywords: Body Comfort, Body Heat, Natural Ventilation, Perception, Satisfaction, Warm humid