Adaptive thermal comfort for energy saving office building design- A literature review

Abstract

Office building thermal environment quality is essential since thermal comfort and worker productivity are closely related. As thermally comfortable condition is determined by the climate, geography, and surroundings, it is vital to have thermal comfort standards to guide the building designers to create a comfortable indoor thermal environment. The current paper reviews studies on adaptive approach of thermal comfort carried out in offices across the world. It has analyzed many research papers through Scopus. This study reveals that indoor thermal condition is impacted by outdoor climates and the impact is higher in naturally ventilated building. Building with natural ventilation has 17.6°C to 31.2°C rage of comfortable temperature. Adaptive comfort models have also been proposed to predict the comfortable indoor temperature in different modes. According to several studies, lowering the set point and using natural ventilation may result in considerable energy savings. The importance of developing climate specific thermal comfort guidelines in order to create energy efficient designs is also emphasized in this study, as present comfort standards may not be suitable for all climates.