Rethinking thermal comfort

Abstract

Thermal comfort' is the term used to describe a satisfactory, stress-free thermal environment in buildings and, therefore, is a socially determined notion defined by norms and expectations. The idea of what is comfortable has certainly changed from one time, place and season to another (Chappells & Shove, 2005). For instance, it is estimated that the Houses of Parliament in London were found comfortable at 15°C by the original inhabitants (Schoenefeldt, 2016), who wore heavier clothing than is common today. Schoenefeldt (2016, p. 165) remarks that attendants reported difficulty getting MPs, who all sat in different areas, to agree on a set temperature. 'There was scarcely a meeting of the house at which there are not some members who would like the temperature to be at 55°F (13°C), and others at 70°F or 72°F' (21-22°C). Large variation exists in indoor thermal comfort according to different climates, times of year and culture. These responses and the actions and the lifestyles and beliefs they engendered ensured that the human race could survive in almost all the wide variety of conditions to be found across the planet. In 'Temperature and adaptive comfort in heated, cooled and free-running dwellings' (in this issue), Nicol finds that in their everyday life 90% of Japanese subjects are comfortable in their own homes with a temperature range between 18 and 28°C. A similar analysis among Pakistani office workers gives a range of 21-30°C (Nicol, Raja, Allaudin, & Jamy, 1999). At the extremes people can be comfortable in indoor temperatures as low as 10°C and as high as 35°C or more. Nonetheless, in any one given situation the comfort range will tend to be much narrower. The ability to find different temperatures acceptable depends on the access to opportunities to modify conditions such as the ability to change clothing or activity level which will enable individuals to be more comfortable (Cole, Robinson, Brown, & O'Shea, 2008). The most powerful of these intervention opportunities is the provision of

Rethinking indoor thermal comfort in the era of rebound and pre‐bound effect for the developing world: A systematic review

“…PMV model was intended for application in the heating and air-conditioning industry to predict the ideal temperature ranges for which maximum number of people would be thermally satisfied. 16,19 Though the model was suitable only for controlled spaces, it has been applied to mixed-mode buildings as well. 22 PMV model got international recognition with its inclusion in thermal comfort standards such as International Standards Organization (ISO) 7730 and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, ASHRAE .…”

Affect-aware thermal comfort provision in intelligent buildings

“…This approach, however, is redundant, problematic, time-consuming, and very expensive to deploy in the real world because it would require to collect, label, and train extensive new data for every person in the building. Also, once the models are deployed, there is no guarantee they would work as expected because thermal comfort is affected by unpredictable factors [1], [6].…”

“…Despite a century of research on thermal comfort, the technologies for its provision leave much to be desired [1], [2]. By definition, thermal comfort is "the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment and is assessed by subjective evaluation [3]".…”

“…Lastly, current international thermal comfort standards are unambitious (they expect a mere 80% satisfaction rate [7]). Consequently, many luminaries in the field [1], [2], [5], [7] argue for a paradigm shift in how thermal comfort is provided.…”

Contours of an urban architectural anthropology: built environment, climate control and socio‐material practices in winter in Chongqing (south‐west China)

“…Scientific approaches to climate control in urban housing primarily focus on adaptive thermal comfort indoors. Even if the term 'thermal comfort' -coined during studies in the comfort chamber in the 1920s (Chang 2016) -is slowly losing its universal connotations (Nicol and Roaf 2017), it still figures prominently in discussions of indoor climatisation. Studies on thermal regulation practices investigate the interactions between social actors and their material environment and largely focus on the role of air-conditioning (Hitchings and Lee 2008;Sahakian 2014) and heating (Cupples et al 2007;Hitchings et al 2015).…”