Towards an adaptive model for thermal comfort in Japanese offices

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the seasonal adaptation to temperature that occurs in Japanese offices, with a view to suggesting an adaptive model for them. Temperatures were measured in 11 office buildings and thermal comfort transverse surveys of occupants were conducted for over a year in the Tokyo and Yokohama areas of Japan. A total of 4660 samples were collected from about 1350 people. The occupants were found to be highly satisfied with the thermal environment in their offices. Even though the Japanese government recommends the indoor temperature setting of 28°C for cooling and 20°C for heating, the comfort globe temperature was found to be 2.6°C lower in cooling mode and 4.3°C higher in heating mode, in line with actual indoor temperatures. The monthly and seasonal variation in the comfort temperature was found to be significantly lower than those in dwellings. The comfort temperature is related primarily to the indoor temperature, but an adaptive relationship can be derived to estimate the indoor comfort temperature from the prevailing outdoor temperature for similar office buildings.

KEYWORDS:

• adaptation
• adaptive model
• comfort temperature
• Griffiths method
• indoor temperature
• office buildings
• thermal comfort
• Japan

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all those who participated in the survey, as well as Gotoh Educational Corporation, Hulic Co., Ltd, Nikken Sekkei Ltd, Panasonic Corporation, Tokyo City University, Tokyu Fudosan Next Generation Engineering Center Inc., and Tsuzuki Ward for their cooperation, and all the students for data entry.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) Number 24560726 and (B) Number 25289200.