Adaptive thermal comfort model for educational buildings in a hot-humid climate

Abstract

In this work, we show a thermal comfort field study and adaptive thermal comfort model in educational buildings under tropical Aw climate, considering air conditioning systems (AC) and natural ventilation (NV). The thermal comfort field study and the adaptive thermal comfort model considers 496 collected datasets, in 27 buildings in Tuxtla Gutiérrez-México, in warm season. In AC mode, the 48.1% of occupants surveyed felt comfort, the 44.0% felt cold and the 7.9% felt warmth. In NV mode, the 59.7% felt comfort, the 11.0% felt cold and the 29.3% felt warmth. In AC mode, the neutral preferences, the temperature, the relative humidity and the air velocity were 24.7 ± 1.6 °C, 52.1 ± 5.2% and 0.14 ± 0.05 m/s, respectively; in NV mode were 26.9 ± 1.3 °C, 54.4 ± 5.6% and 0.13 ± 0.04 m/s. The effect of the comfort temperature on the air movement was noticed, the Va was directly proportional to Tcomf. In AC mode, the Tcomf increase up to 27.4 ± 1.9 °C with a Va of 0.17 ± 0.06 m/s, which can be supplied at 0.17 ± 0.03, for cold conditioned supply air. In NV mode, the Tcomf can rise up to 29.3 ± 2.6 °C with a Va of 0.14 ± 0.03 m/s, for fresh air. As seen in AC Mode under tropical Aw climate, the surveyed in educational building prefer higher comfort temperatures up to 1.0 °C in reference to current standards, and this temperature can rise as the air movement increase. Thus, the increase of comfort temperature allows save energy and increase the percentage of satisfied people at the same time, if the thermal adaptability of occupants is considered.