HOUSING SELECTION

This section describes ‘comfort at home’ at the level of comfortable housing.

The respondents elaborated on many different kind of housing selection criteria. Four types of housing selection criteria could be identified in all six interviews. These four criteria contribute according to respondents to comfort at home and also were (un) consciously associated with the

60 indoor climate. This section describes these four housing selection criteria and how users relate each criterion (in)directly to the indoor climate.

A first criterion that respondents consider is the ‘status and appearance of the house’. The descriptions of status and appearance of each respondent and their preferences were rather diverse. Sanne favors a house that has ‘character’.

“I like it that the house has a lived-in look; it’s not too new and has character. This canal house has a wooden beamed ceiling and wooden lived-in floor. The house has weird corners, not only in this room, but in the whole house. The floors are not leveled equally everywhere, there are many small stairs in between. Those kinds of things give it character. I was hooked immediately. “(Sanne)

Whereas Emiel likes the opposite:

“What I like, just before I moved in here, that the house was renovated and everything is up-to-date. It is all finished perfectly, nothing is broken, and everything works. It’s all new and modern. Otherwise, I don’t believe that I would have bought it.” (Emiel)

The status and appearance of a house has an effect on the indoor climate. For example, Sanne related this criterion directly to the indoor climate by referring to draft:

“This house is of course rather old, thus it is a bit drafty. That is something that you know in advance […] that’s part of the deal. I believe that you don’t have to open windows constantly for fresh air here.”(Sanne)

One might expect that draft would be a general comfort issue, but it is not for Sanne. Sanne knew at forehand that it would be a drafty house, and accepts that it is a characteristic of the house. Therefore, she does not recognizes the draft at home as a problem, but rather explained that she wears extra clothes to be comfortable. She developed her own solution for the drafty old house. In contrast to Emiel, draft would be a serious issue for him. Yet he does not experience uncomfortable draft as he argues due to recent restorations at this house. He does not have to experience draft because he had chosen consciously a renovated house.

A second criterion is the ‘outside view’. Also for the outside view applies that each respondent has a personal preference that makes him or her at ease at home, which resulted in six different descriptions of a comfortable outside view. Two example are provided:

"I find it really cool to live up so high ... the view, yes, that is the big reason why I bought it." (Emiel) “So far, since I live in Enschede, I always had a view on the church. And I’ve said each time, if I move, then I want again a house with a view on the church.”(Brenda)

For each respondent applies that their own comfortable outside view contributed to the experiences of their housing comfort.

The criterion outside view has in some cases impact on the indoor climate, because it contributes to the place of the house in a building. For example, Emiel’s bought his apartment situated on the fourteenth floor, partly inspired by the beautiful view. But because his house is placed at the top of the building, he has to deal with the rising heat of neighbors downstairs, which lead to a situation that it is often uncomfortable warm at home. In contrast to Brenda, her house is built-in between that of her neighbors, which makes that warmth retains and less heating is required. She finds this a comfortable situation because she considers that she has to heat less herself. The choice for a

61 specific outside view has impact on the location of the house, and therefore also indirectly affects the indoor climate.

A third criterion is related to surrounding safety in the neighborhood. All respondents associate a calm neighborhood with being safe. That resulted in similar descriptions about interactions with their neighbors, like:

“Live is quiet here [...] the neighbors in the flat, it all very jovial, people do not have conflicts with each other […]we feel safe here, that is important.”(Brenda)

Good relationship with their neighbors is an important condition for comfort, because it provides a safe feeling. Although that all users consider their neighborhood as safe, Brenda and Karina consider another safety aspect: the possibility of burglaries, which has an impact on their experiences of the neighborhood. Even though they perceive it as safe, these users want to prevent from intrusions of thieves. When users bring up the riffraff in their in their neighborhood, they link it in a practical way to the indoor climate. The prevention of intrusions influences how they deal with their windows: they leave windows never open unattended during the day to prevent burglary. Also the other users were questioned about this kind of safety issues in their neighborhood, but do not experience it or see it as uncomfortable. Those users leave windows slightly open during the day, whether locked or not, for fresh air all day. The households of Brenda and Karina would prefer fresh air too, but are in a practical way hindered by ideas burglaries in the neighborhood which affects their indoor climate. The idea that they keep intruders outside by closing windows makes them comfortable with their neighborhood.

A fourth criteria to consider a house attractive is ‘incidence of daylight’. For daylight in home, windows are important according to all the respondents. They take the degree of sunlight and windows into account when they select their home. The descriptions were comparable with the following illustration:

“And I believe that it is actually very light at home. I like that […] that is also part of why we choose this house. Of course, the light is due to the large window at the backside. I really enjoy the light in this room.” (Karina)

The respondent explained that daylight has a positive effect on comfort because it improves their daily performance and mood at home.

All users understand light as an indoor climatic phenomenon. In their words, (sun)light in home is an indoor climatic condition by itself. Furthermore, they argue that sunlight influences the indoor climate not only as light source, but also contributes to warmth, another important climatic conditions in their perspective. Users see light consciously as an indoor climatic condition and at the same time the sun as influencer of the indoor climate.

The four presented housing criteria are important for all users to select a comfortable house. In addition to these criteria, all users revealed that they found it important that they were able to choose consciously themselves a house that fits their own criteria. That they could make their own selection contributes highly to their experienced housing comfort.