Abstract
Thermal comfort in the built environment is one of the most defining parameters influencing energy use, environmental quality, and occupant satisfaction; therefore, it is currently receiving a great deal of academic attention. Unfortunately, there is still a pronounced lack of research in this area within developing countries in tropical regions, which are becoming increasingly urbanised and where mechanical air conditioning demands are rising dramatically. Many of these countries are adopting thermal comfort standards such as the ASHRAE Standard 55, the EN 15251, and the ISO 7730 to regulate the use of air-conditioning; even when these standards have been widely criticised for their inadequacy to suit other geographical regions and contexts, different to the ones that they were designed for. There is growing evidence to suggest the need to confirm these models through further post-occupancy studies and fieldwork in real buildings. Deficiencies in data collection and methodologies are thought to require particular attention, in order to develop algorithms that can predict thermal comfort levels with more accuracy. More comprehensive strategies considering relevant interrelated psychological, physiological and social factors are needed. This manuscript highlights gaps of research regarding thermal comfort in the built environment, through the analysis of Colombia as a case study. It is stressed here that new academic advancements in this area have had little effect on related policy. The work emphasises the importance of standardised fieldwork data and gives examples of alternative data collection and methodology systems. This aims to contribute to the current efforts of improving the understanding of occupant´s adaptive behaviours and their potential impact on the mitigation of climate change.
Highlights
This article highlights and justifies the need to produce more efficient, comprehensive and standardised methods to collect data from buildings and their occupants, aiming to support the development of thermal comfort assessment models in tropical countries
Colombia is used in this manuscript as a representative example to illustrate in more detail the challenges faced by thermal comfort research in a developing country located within the topics
Observation phase The aim of this phase was to test the existing methods and models proposed by ASHRAE Standard 55 for fieldwork in the context of Colombia
Summary
This article highlights and justifies the need to produce more efficient, comprehensive and standardised methods to collect data from buildings and their occupants, aiming to support the development of thermal comfort assessment models in tropical countries. Information about environmental conditions taken from existing buildings and subjective evaluations from their occupants was categorised for these databases using multiple criteria, such as building typology, occupancy type, occupants' demographics, thermal comfort perceptions, indoor instrumental measurements, outdoor meteorological information, and calculated comfort indices This is a considerable achievement given the complexity of comparing studies from different authors in distinct contexts and using diverse methodologies to acquire and analyse data. Deficiencies in data collection and fieldwork methodologies are one of the biggest challenges faced in thermal comfort research since the accuracy of the theoretical models relies greatly on the quality of the recorded data from real buildings Another important limitation is geographical coverage, as there is still a general lack of research in tropical contexts and climates, compared to other regions in the world. It is essential to achieve the coordination of the entities generating policies on thermal comfort to provide greater clarity in the minimum expected requirements, the implementation processes and the evaluation methods
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