An Adaptive Thermal Comfort Model For Hot Summer And Cold Winter Context

The comfort temperature setpoint directly affected indoor thermal comfort and the energy consumption. The adaptive approach to modeling thermal comfort acknowledges that thermal perception in 'real world' settings is influenced by the complexities of past thermal history, cultural context, nature of buildings and outdoor climate. And comfort temperature is more closely track patterms in outdoor climate. At the viewpoint of adaptive thermal comfort, in designing of air-conditioning systems, the conventional fixed temperature setpoint concept is not appropriates, which ignores the potential of control over indoor environment. The adaptive thermal comfort theory allows people greater control over their own indoor environment and indoor temperature to more closely track patterms in outdoor climate and meet the natural tendency to care for the changing nature. So the application of the adaptive approach to the thermal comfort standards can have potentially signigicant and positive impacts on both improving comfort and reducing energy consumption.In hot summer and cold winter climatic zone, the thermal environment is poor in the free-running buildings, and people take measures to heat and cool with freedom. Due to the lack of guidance, the energy consumption in heating and cooling is largely increasing.In order to improve the indoor thermal conditions and reduce the energy consumption, a large-scale field survey has been conducted in NanYang in the hot summer and cold winter zone. The indoor environmental conditions was measured and the subjective questionairs has been done, and a seven-point thermal sensation scale was used to evaluate thermal sensation. The statistical method was used to analyse the data and the conclusions are as follows:1. The population in the hot summer and cold winter region could take some measures to reduce the degree of discomfort and have a large potential of adaptation to climate. In naturally ventilated buildings, control over indoor thermal conditions can be obtained by using commonly available controls such as openable windows, fans and air-condition. Clothing is an important factor in achieving comfort at different temperatures. The mean clothing value was observed to be 0.28clo in summer and 1.41clo in winter respectively. The Clo value varies with the outdoor climate.2. In 'real world' settings, it is found that the neutral temperature is 13.6℃,the preferred temperature is 14.5℃and the temperature of the 80% comfort zone is from 11.2℃to 16.8℃in winter, and in summer the neutral temperature is 27.3℃,the preferred temperature is 26.7℃and the temperature of the 80% comfort zone is from 24.2℃to 29.8℃. The preferred temperature was lower 0.6℃than the neutral temperature in the summer and higher 0.9℃in the winter season.3. The neutral temperature is close to the mean indoor air temperature in the field study; the comfort temperature is not a fix value but varies with the outdoor climate (especially air temperature ) and it is correlated to the mean outdoor temperature. The adaptive thermal comfort model of residential buildings in hot summer and cold winter context is established based on the correlation between the neutral temperature and themean outdoor air temperature:The variable temperature standard based on the adaptive model does not increase discomfort and allows significant reductions in energy consumption in buildings.It is necessary for adaptive comfort temperature to improve the indoor thermal conditions and reduce energy consumption. According to the relationship between comfort temperature and the outdoor temperature can be used to help design comfortable and sustainable building, help the designer to juge whether passive heating and/or cooling are a possibility in the climate under consideration.