Survey of thermal comfort in residential buildings under natural conditions in hot humid and cold wet seasons in Nanjing

Abstract

Comfort standards (ISO 7730, ASHRAE 55) specify the exact physical criteria for producing acceptable thermal environments, such as temperature, air movement, and humidity limits. These, however, are often difficult to comply with, particularly in hot humid and cold wet seasons in Nanjing, China. Changing expectations of comfort is important in evaluating comfort, since naturally conditioned buildings in Nanjing are not typically air-conditioned. For this objective, a field study was conducted during the summer of 2000 and the winter of 2001. A total of 600 participants each answered a subjective questionnaire. Analyzing these field data shows that in natural conditions, the influence of gender and age on people’s thermal sensations is insignificant compared with six main variables. In addition, people’s thermal discomfort rapidly increases along with growth in relative humidity. Further, the variation of people’s hot or cold sensations is in proportion to that of air movement, and the effect in winter is greater than that in summer. The range of acceptable temperatures in hot humid and cold wet Nanjing is between 14.14°C and 29.42°C.

Keywords

thermal comfort / naturally conditioned / hot humid / cold wet / Nanjing

References

[1] Kwok A G, Chun C. Thermal comfort in Japanese schools. Solar Energy, 2003, 74(3): 245–252

[2] Nicol F. Adaptive thermal comfort standards in the hot–humid tropics. Energy and Building, 2004, 36(7): 628–637

[3] Kwok A G. Air movement and thermal comfort in tropical schools. In: Proceedings of 22nd National Passive Solar Conference, Washington, 1997, 25–31

[4] Kwok A G. Thermal comfort in tropical classrooms. ASHRAE Transactions, 1998, 104(1): 1031–1047

[5] Wong N H, Khoo S S. Thermal comfort in classrooms in the tropics. Energy and Building, 2003, 35(4): 337–351

[6] Busch J F. Thermal responses to the Thai office environment. ASHRAE Transactions, 1990, 96(1): 859–872

[7] Busch J F. A tale of two populations: thermal comfort in air-conditioned and naturally-ventilated offices in Thailand. Energy and Building, 1992, 18(3–4): 235–249

[8] Dear R J, Auliciems A. Validation of the predicted mean vote model of thermal comfort in six Australian field studies. ASHRAE Transactions, 1985, 91(2): 452–468

[9] Dear R J, Leow K G, Foo S C. Thermal comfort in the humid tropics: Field experiments in air conditioned and naturally ventilated buildings in Singapore. International Journal of Biometeorology, 1991, 34(4): 259–265

[10] Dear R J, Fountain M E. Field experiments on occupant comfort and office thermal environments in a hot-humid climate. ASHRAE Transactions, 1994, 100(2): 457–475

[11] Ye X J, Zhou Z P, Lian Z W, . Field study of a thermal environment and adaptive model in Shanghai. Indoor Air, 2006, 16(4): 320–326

[12] Feriadi H, Wong N H. Thermal comfort for naturally ventilated houses in Indonesia. Energy and Building, 2004, 36(7): 614–626

[13] Yoshino H, Lou H. Indoor Thermal Environment of Residential Buildings in Three Cities of China. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 2002, 1(1): 129–136

[14] Hwang R L, Lin T P, Kuo N J. Field experiments on thermal comfort in campus classrooms in Taiwan. Energy and Buildings, 2006, 38(1): 53–62

[15] Auliciems A. Towards a psycho-physiological model of thermal perception. International Journal of Biometeorology, 1981, 25(2): 109–122

[16] Danielson E N. Nanjing and the Lower Yangzi River. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2004

[17] Rohles F H, Nevins R G. The nature of thermal comfort for sedentary man. ASHRAE Transactions, 1971, 77(1): 239–246

[18] Fanger P O. Thermal Comfort. New York: Hemisphere-McGraw-Hill, 1972

[19] Fountain M E, Arens E, Xu T F, . An investigation of thermal comfort at high humidities. ASHRAE Transactions, 1999, 105(2): 1–10

Acknowledgements

This work described in this paper was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2010061), the Advance Research Projects of Southeast University for National Natural Science Foundation of China (XJ0701262), and National Key Technologies R&D Program of China (2008BAJ12B04, 2008BAJ12B05 and 2006BAJ03A04).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg