Published Article

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the thermal comfort level of middle-income housing in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The researcher adopted a descriptive survey research design, using the population of all middle-income housing residents. A sample of 200 respondents was randomly selected for questionnaire administration, while 5 houses were used for physical measurement. Besides the questionnaire tagged "PASSIVE DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE THERMAL COMFORT QUESTIONNAIRE (PDSSTCQ)," several other instruments were used for data collection, including liquid crystal thermometers, Wet and Dry Bulb hygrometers, anemometers, and the CBE Thermal Comfort Tool. The variables were subject to descriptive analysis, One-Way Analysis of variance, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis at a 0.05 level of significance and 198 degrees of freedom. The results (calculated F-values of 5.95, 4.44, 3.63, and 2.88) were greater than the critical F-value of 2.37, and 0.69, which was greater than the critical r-value of 0.139, were significant, which therefore means that there is a significant influence of the level of housing occupied on the level of comfort satisfaction of the occupants with respect to the physical measurement of the following components of thermal comfort: TWC, MRTC, TDC, and GTC. The result also showed that there is a significant relationship between the architectural features of the building and the effectiveness of natural ventilation and thermal comfort. The researcher recommended that Architectural features that promote thermal comfort should be used for buildings in order to make the occupants comfortable.

KEYWORDS: Thermal Comfort, Natural Ventilation, Architectural Features