Developing an adaptive model of thermal comfort and preference

The adaptive hypothesis predicts that contextual factors and past thermal history modify building occupants' thermal expectations and preferences. One of the predictions of the adaptive hypothesis is that people in warm climate zones prefer warmer indoor temperatures than people living in cold climate zones. This is contrary to the static assumptions underlying the current ASHRAE comfort standard 55-92. To examine the adaptive hypothesis and its implications for Standard 55-92, the ASHRAE RP-884 project assembled a quality-controlled database from thermal comfort field experiments worldwide (circa 21,000 observations from 160 buildings). Our statistical analysis examined the semantics of thermal comfort in terms of thermal sensation,