The need for temperature zoning in high-performance residential buildings

The development from poorly insulated and leaky buildings to modern high-performance buildings, such as passive houses, has led to considerable improvements regarding thermal comfort. However, user evaluations of passive houses that solely employ air heating indicate that bathrooms are often perceived as too cold and bedrooms as too warm. Based on these experiences, the functional requirement of providing thermal comfort using only air heating has not been adopted in the Norwegian standard for passive houses. Instead, usually local heat sources are installed in living rooms and bathrooms to facilitate temperature zoning within the dwelling. The questions asked in this study are how well this heating and ventilation concept functions in practice from the occupants’ point of view and whether it provides thermal comfort in the various rooms. Therefore, a questionnaire was distributed to the occupants of a typical multifamily passive house project in Norway. Despite the small sample size, the findings give important insight into the residents’ perception of the thermal conditions and clearly demonstrate the limitations of the heating and ventilation solution. Based on the results, the need for further development and further studies to provide temperature zoning is outlined.