Hormazábal Poblete, Nina A.
(2013)
Post occupancy evaluation of homes in the United Kingdom to develop an affordable P.O. methodology for homes in Chile.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
A key objective of this research was to carry out a Post Occupancy Evaluation on a sustainable home recently built in the United Kingdom (UK) (code level 4, UK-CSH) through first person research in order to produce evidence that shows that the assessment process and the certification obtained are not enough to secure targets, given that the inclusion of occupants and its complexity have not been fully considered. Furthermore, the research reveals that the occupants of sustainable homes are not fully aware of the lifestyle implications of such homes.
The inhabitants’ experience of living and the performance in the experimental sustainable home produced qualitative data that was integrated with the quantitative data generated and collected by several different tools to measure them. Among the tools the main one was the 48-sensors monitoring system installed in the house, the other tools were a tracking device system to analyse individual used of energy and room permanence, diary of home events, walk through, observations and photographs for architecture analysis, extended and short length questionnaires and face to face interviews were applied. The techniques to process and analyse the obtained data ranged from simple Excel spreadsheets to the use of software packages, such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and NVivo (for verbatim interviews). And, one of the main differences between this POE study and those usually undertaken is the fact that this was a first-person research.
‘Hands on’ experience makes it possible to identify, select and verify real and direct problems that affect the expected performance of a sustainable home. So, when the research process is re-applied to a similar condition, it facilitates the procedure and techniques, potentially avoiding the production of excessive data and over-sophisticated measuring systems and reducing the time taken to obtain robust results. This procedure should especially be applied to social housing which is industrialised and has similar specifications.
In the drive to make homes sustainable, energy efficiency measures are moving at a pace far in excess of the preparedness of home users and their culture. The results of this research provide evidence of the importance of this issue and the lesson learned from the first person research, as a tool for post occupancy evaluation, is that certain problems can easily be solved while others require more profound revision. Instead of just being a new home for exhibition purposes, demonstration homes present an opportunity for implementing a First Home Occupant POE procedure, especially on new massive sustainable “social housing” developments, as they can be built quickly and inhabited by any prospective tenant willing to contribute to sustainable living, before other new owners or tenants move in.
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