Temperature and adaptive comfort in heated, cooled and free-running dwellings

ABSTRACT

It might be assumed that buildings with active mechanical heating/cooling systems will have a narrower indoor temperature range than those without: that the indoor temperature will be adjusted by the system to reflect the needs of occupants, which are approximately the same for all. This assumption is critically examined through the records of indoor temperatures and comfort in domestic buildings in Japan, England and Saudi Arabia, with less complete data from Russia, China, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and New Zealand. Evidence is presented here from a number of surveys in domestic buildings. This suggests that in mechanically controlled buildings there can be a wide range of indoor conditions. These results with buildings are then compared with free-running buildings. It is found that the temperature range in these is often smaller. This discrepancy from normal assumptions is explained using the adaptive approach, considering mechanical systems as a powerful adaptive opportunity used by dwelling inhabitants to suit the indoor conditions to their own diverse climates, buildings and lifestyles. The results suggest that existing guidelines for indoor temperatures in dwellings are inappropriate and could be more flexible.

KEYWORDS:

• adaptation
• adaptive comfort
• domestic buildings
• indoor temperature
• standards

Acknowledgements

Heartfelt thanks to Professor Hom Rijal of Tokyo City University, Dr Abdulrahman Alshaikh of Heriot Watt University, and Galina Borovikova for permission to use their databases of comfort results which have helped both to suggest and to confirm the conclusions of this paper. The author also had useful discussions with members of the team at the UCL Energy Institute at University College London, as well as with his long-term colleague Professor Susan Roaf. Finally, thanks to the authors of the many other sources of information whose work is referenced in this paper

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 There is some uncertainty about the lower end of this distribution (outdoor temperatures of about 13°C and below). There is some evidence that there may be some misreporting in the database such that a few of the indoor temperatures are from buildings which are directly or indirectly heated.

2 The SHASE scale, named after the Society of Heating, Air-conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan, is a seven-point scale like the ASHRAE scale but the votes –2 and –3 are described as Cold and Very Cold (instead of Cool and Cold) and the votes +2 and +3 are Hot and Very Hot instead of Warm and Hot.