Occupants’ Thermal Sensation and Perception in Naturally Ventilated Public Office Buildings in a Hot–Dry Climate: A UTCI-Based Field Study in Latur, Maharashtra, India

Naturally ventilated public offices are common in hot-dry climates of Indian cities, where ceiling fans are the primary comfort technology. This field study examines how ceiling-fan operation affects thermal sensation (TSV; −3 to +3) and thermal perception (TPV; 1 to 5) in three public office buildings in Latur, Maharashtra. Across four daily time blocks, n = 295 questionnaires were paired with concurrent microclimate measurements to compute the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). This study compared fan ON and fan OFF conditions using paired t-tests and fitted ordinary least-squares (OLS) regressions between UTCI and TSV/TPV. Relative to fan OFF, fan ON shifted TSV toward neutrality and increased TPV at comparable UTCI values. TSV rose with UTCI and TPV declined as UTCI increased, but both sensitivities were smaller when fans were ON, indicating perceptual relief from elevated air speed. Results are consistent with adaptive comfort theory and current standards and support low-energy, fan-enabled strategies for thermal comfort in naturally ventilated public offices.