Most of the energy consumption in a hot and dry area is used for the air-conditioning systems. This study aims to investigate the possibility of reducing the electricity consumption in air conditioners using ground cold energy to cool the hot fluid in the pipes.Several experiments were carried out to investigate the performance of the proposed system to be used in the weather conditions of Baghdad city (i.e., hot and dry).Two configurations of ground source heat exchangers (GSHEs) were developed and constructed. The first configuration comprised coil type with two different materials (copper and polyvinyl chloride [PVC]). The second configuration was the 3U type, which was made from copper, PVC, and galvanized. Three water flow rates were considered (5, 10, and 15 L/min) with water inlet temperatures (80°C, 70°C, and 60°C). The experiments' results showed that the type of material of the pipe has a significant influence on both the heat transfer effectiveness and the system performance.Copper tubes were the best type of heat exchanger (type coil) to be used in this regard. The highest recorded values of the heat exchange rate were 5.81, 4.81, 2.72, 1.60, and 1.32 kW with an inlet temperature of 80°C and a flow rate of 5 L/min for the case of

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Thermal discomfort is one of the main triggers for occupants’ interactions with components of the built environment such as adjustments of thermostats and/or opening windows and strongly related to the energy use in buildings. Understanding causes for thermal (dis-)comfort is crucial for design and operation of any type of building. The assessment of human thermal perception through rating scales, for example in post-occupancy studies, has been applied for several decades; however, long-existing assumptions related to these rating scales had been questioned by several researchers. The aim of this study was to gain deeper knowledge on contextual influences on the interpretation of thermal perception scales and their verbal anchors by survey participants. A questionnaire was designed and consequently applied in 21 language versions. These surveys were conducted in 57 cities in 30 countries resulting in a dataset containing responses from 8225 participants. The database offers potential for further analysis in the areas of building design and operation, psycho-physical relationships between human perception and the built environment, and linguistic analyses.

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An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.