Much of active energy used in the public buildings which are not climate responsive is to make the indoor spaces physiologically comfortable. Field survey and experimental approach were adopted to assess the level of comfort, utilization of building design variables {climate responsive design (CRD) parameters} and active energy consumption in selected public buildings in the six States of Southwestern Nigeria.
Characteristics of the climate responsive design (CRD) parameters were discussed extensively. The mean satisfaction rating of utilization of passive design parameters was 2.72 on a 5 point Likert rating scale, implying users' low level of satisfaction with the design parameters. The mean active energy consumption to attain the required thermal and visual comfort was 6.89 kWh which is high compared to Givoni's recommendation of 5.50 kWh. The analysis of variance test showed that utilization of passive design parameters significantly influenced active energy consumption in the public buildings in all the states of Southwestern Nigeria (4.3 < F < 7.7, P < 0.05).
The contribution of passive design parameters to variance in active energy consumption as measured by squaredsemi partial correlation was significant in all the states (0.45 < Sr2 < 0.75, p < 0.05) except in Ondo State (Sr2=0.17) and Lagos State (Sr2= 0.28). The study revealed that correlation existing among pairs of all the variables could explain why the level of active energy consumption varied from state to state and from one subsector to the other.