In hot dry climates, employing passive cooling roofs systems can providecooling needs with less amount of electrical energy. Furthermore, when focusing onliving spaces in terms of indoor thermal comfort and energy performance issues,occupant’s interaction with the building should not be underestimated. Recent studieswith occupant-based focus have shown that human behaviour significantly impactsenergy consumption, even more than building design. Likewise, understandingoccupant’s interactions within buildings plays a key role in enhancing the indoorenvironment performance. To examine the potential for cooling load reduction andthermal comfort enhancement by using cool roofs in residential buildings, a study wasperformed. Considering a sample of twelve multi-story houses located in the city ofBiskra (southern Algeria), thermal comfort conditions were analysed on the basis of apost-occupancy evaluation (POE) survey and in situ recorded measurementscampaign. The POE household survey indicated that out of 43 respondents, 54%perceive indoor thermal conditions as “hot” during summer period, while 79.33% ofthem operate HVAC device day and night. Using interviews, the study also exploressocial acceptability toward implementing passive roofing techniques. Results showedthat cool roof and cool tiles were the best accepted systems with 100% and 90% votedstrongly agree. Furthermore, the potential of thermal comfort and energy-efficiencyimprovements due to cool roofs was investigated through a dynamic simulation usingTRNSYS software. Results indicated that air temperature was reduced by an averageof 4.11°C to 3.28°C, and cooling loads have decreased to 508.60kWh/m² and384.54kWh/m² respectively during the hottest period of summer. Therefore, user-centric satisfaction as a research method would enhance future buildings design.