Study on thermal comfort zone in MM and HVAC office buildings in Aichi prefecture based on daily survey

Abstract

Thermal comfort has been a discussed subject since 1930. Researchers have looked into understanding the thermal comfort of the occupant’s weather at home, offices, educational institution because the occupants have significant effects on their indoor environment. In this study we aim to understand the comfort temperature ranges in Mixed-mode (MM) and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) types of office buildings in Japan. The field data is collected from six office buildings located in Aichi prefecture from July 2021 to October 2022, where 16,411 responses were collected from 46 occupants. The environmental parameters such as air temperature, relative humidity, and so on were measured along with the responses. The result suggests that the office workers are highly satisfied and they are adapted to the indoor environment, as in the MM office buildings 80 % of the occupants were comfortable at the temperature range of 19~29 °C whereas in HVAC office building this range was 22~27 °C. MM office buildings had wider range of thermal comfort zone even under HT and CL mode as compared to HVAC buildings which suggests that the MM type of buildings are better than HVAC.