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Featured Application: This paper proposes a new evaluation method for rural residence thermal insulation performance based on indoor thermal comfort (PMV) index, which provides a new optimization idea for the retrofitting of existing buildings. In the field investigation of rural dwellings, it was found that thermal feelings are significantly different with varied envelopes even under the same indoor air temperature, and this paper explores the phenomenon in simulation. Based on building thermal investigations in several villages of North China, a typical energy and environment simulation model for rural residences was developed using DeST, and the hourly parameters of temperature and humidity were used to calculate the adaptive thermal comfort (APMV) of the rooms. The results show that the main reason for the different thermal comfort at the same air temperature is the large difference in the inner surface temperature. By adjusting the insulation thickness of the envelope structure, the relationship between it and the APMV value is obtained. By adjusting the insulation thickness of the enclosure structure and getting the correlation between it and the APMV value, it is obtained that when the heat transfer coefficient of the enclosure structure meets 0.5 W/(m2·K), the indoors can be in thermal comfort. This paper considers that the indoor air temperature cannot represent the APMV to evaluate the indoor thermal comfort, and the APMV value should be used to evaluate the thermal comfort of the renovated building and calculate the corresponding energy saving rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal comfort has an important role in human life, considering that people spend most of their lives in indoor environments. However, the necessity of ensuring the thermal comfort of these people presents an important problem, calculating the thermal comfort accurately. The assessment of thermal comfort has always been problematic, from past to present, and the studies conducted in this field have indicated that there is a gap between thermal comfort and thermal sensation. Although recent studies have shown an effort to take human psychology into account more extensively, these studies just focused on the physiological responses of the human body under psychological disturbances. On the other hand, the mood state of people is one of the most significant parameters of human psychology. Thus, this paper investigated the effect of occupants' mood states on thermal sensation; furthermore, it introduced a novel "Mood State Correction Factor" (MSCF) to the existing thermal comfort model. To this aim, experiments were conducted at a mixed-mode building in a university between 15 August 2021 and 15 August 2022. Actual Mean Vote (AMV) and Profile of Mood States (POMS) were used to examine the effect of mood state on thermal sensation. The outcomes of this study showed that in the mood states of very pessimistic and very optimistic, the occupants felt warmer than the calculated one and the MSCFs are calculated as −0.125 and −0.114 for the very pessimistic and very optimistic mood states, respectively. It is worth our time to note that the experiments in this study were conducted during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and the results of this study could differ in different cultural backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecuador is a country with several climate zones. However, their behaviour is similar throughout the year, with no peaks of extreme temperatures in the various seasons. This paper is a first approach to study the adaptive comfort behaviour in several areas and populations of the country. Considering the ASHRAE 55-2020 model, energy simulation programmes are applied not just to the current climate scenario but also to the climate change scenarios of 2050 and 2100. The results of locations are analysed and compared to determine their performance. Thanks to their climate characteristics, adaptive comfort models could be applied as a passive strategy, using natural ventilation for building indoor comfort improvement, particularly social dwellings. According to previous studies, some prototypes have not considered the climate determinants in each region. Given the geographic situation of the study areas, the adaptive comfort model could be applied in all cases. Percentages of application of natural ventilation and heating and cooling degree hours have similar behaviours according to the climatic region, with a variation greater than 30% among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mandya district of Karnataka, India, houses a unique Jain settlement constructed about 1000 years ago. Recent excavations by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) indicate a high degree of engineering skills among the builders of this settlement. Adapting to heat-stresses in a region where the Monsoons often failed was and is still a matter of concern. Ingenious methods were adopted to modulate bioclimatic responses to maintain thermal comfort indices. The Aretippurians used composite building fabrics which modulated heat transfer to the interiors. Indeed, the thermal transmittances for these composite fabrics were low to moderate for both the temple complexes as well as the dormitories; these were 0.27 Wm−1K−1 and 0.23 Wm−1K−1, respectively. A site visit revealed that a unique and engineered micro-climate was also made to prevail on this hilltop settlement housing several hundred Jain settlers. A granite skirted reservoir was indeed the pièce-de-résistance promoting hydraulic air-conditioning for eight months of the year around the premises with copious winds blowing over a large and exposed rain-fed reservoir. This fanned chilled air across the open plan temples, courtyards, and lived-in areas. This paper explores bioclimatic responses for around 120 residents to the prevailing indoor settings modulated by an engineered microclimate. This was possible because of the staggered layout, unique building forms, use of mixed building fabric, and carefully chosen glazing ratios which yielded salubrious settings. Clearly, this entailed a complex interplay between the intercepted solar insolation, structure-driven turbulence, and the transfer of heat across the original composite walls within and around the complex, requiring a systematic experimental as well as modelling study. The experimental part of the project involved the calculation of the thermal transmittivity across the walls made up of fired bricks, granite, and limestone, and the theoretical part involved the use of appropriate software to reconstruct air flow and heat distribution across floors, walls, and ceilings to proxy the original flow pattern yielding the comfortable PMV (predicted mean vote) and PET (physiological equivalent temperature) values within these premises. This exercise may well lead to further explorations on indoor comfort adaptations in tropical settings with the use of many edifying vernacular idioms in ancient settlements which prevail even in modern layouts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The physiological equivalent temperature (PET) and the universal thermal climate index (UTCI) are considered adaptive thermal comfort evaluation indices applicable to transition space. • The strong wind is prone to occur in winter on Huajiang campus. It is important to take precautions against the discomfort caused by a strong wind. • The outdoor thermal comfort condition of Huajiang campus in summer is better than it in winter. • Adjusting the coverage of lawn, marble floor, water surface and landscape trees can effectively regulate the microclimate of the library's inner courtyard space. The inner courtyard is an important transition space for mass exchange and heat transfer between the internal space of courtyard buildings and the external environment. A good layout of courtyard space is conducive to building energy efficiency and human thermal comfort. In the paper, we analyze the impacts of different design schemes of the spatial layout on the microclimate of inner courtyard space using field measurements and numerical simulation methods. The analysis of the measured data presents the main meteorological factors affecting the thermal comfort of the courtyard. The magnitude of the effects is ranked as air temperature, total solar radiation intensity, near-surface air flow rate, and relative humidity. Results of the ENVI-met simulation show that changing the cover of different underlying surface types leads to different microclimate regulation effects in the sense that the temperature and relative humidity in summer drops up to 3.53 °C and 15.59%, respectively and in winter increase up to 3.97 °C and 37.21%, respectively. This paper proposes that lawn ground, marble ground, water surface and landscape tree coverage of 25%, 25%, 50% and 75%, respectively, are suitable design schemes for the inner courtyard space of library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation carries out a thermal evaluation of two rooms located in the Royal Hospital of Granada (Rector's Office). This is a heritage building where have been done studies that allow the as-sessment of possible improvements in future interventions that guarantee improvement in en-ergy and regulatory compliance are decisive. This article presents for the first time, through energy simulation, the behavior of two rooms in two temporal periods, thermally extreme (summer and winter) and with opposite orientations. This has allowed the potential benefits to be considered in real climate conditions. The results demonstrate and quantify that considering the location, orientation, arrangement of openings, and inclusion of transition zones between the exterior and the interior, an improvement in thermal comfort is obtained. The southwesterly orientation is favorable in the winter period and the northeasterly orientation in the summer period. It is also confirmed that the arrangement of thick masonry walls responds adequately in climates with high thermal amplitudes, favoring the mitigation of extreme conditions. It is concluded by stating that the orientation and the construction components are the main responsible factors for the thermal capacity in this type of building. In this context, the use of non-destructive study methods offers valuable scientific support through the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The residential Heating Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system use around 3/5 of the total energy consumption. Connected thermostats optimize the HVAC operation; however, householders have personality traits that lead into behavioral and usability problems toward the thermostat's interface usage. Thus, a serious game applied in the thermostat interface can balance entertainment and education. Therefore, thermostat interfaces must address strategies that reduce energy without losing thermal comfort. This paper proposed an interactive interface type and a predicted interface type based on an HVAC strategy and a Natural Ventilation strategy. These strategies measured the impact of adaptive thermal comfort, energy consumption, and costs. Hence, twelve energy models located in California (Concord, Riverside, Los Angeles, and San Diego) were simulated using EnergyPlus™ through LadybugTools. The first interactive interface included Serious Game elements, so the householder interacted with the date, location, and setpoint. The second interface predicted the energy consumption and thermal comfort during winter and summer in Concord by a two-layer feed-forward Artificial Neural Network structure. The proposed structure decreases the energy consumption by at least 62% without losing thermal comfort.

In the field investigation of rural dwellings, it was found that thermal feelings are significantly different with varied envelopes even under the same indoor air temperature, and this paper explores the phenomenon in simulation. Based on building thermal investigations in several villages of North China, a typical energy and environment simulation model for rural residences was developed using DeST, and the hourly parameters of temperature and humidity were used to calculate the adaptive thermal comfort (APMV) of the rooms. The results show that the main reason for the different thermal comfort at the same air temperature is the large difference in the inner surface temperature. By adjusting the insulation thickness of the envelope structure, the relationship between it and the APMV value is obtained. By adjusting the insulation thickness of the enclosure structure and getting the correlation between it and the APMV value, it is obtained that when the heat transfer coefficient of the enclosure structure meets 0.5 W/(m2·K), the indoors can be in thermal comfort. This paper considers that the indoor air temperature cannot represent the APMV to evaluate the indoor thermal comfort, and the APMV value should be used to evaluate the thermal comfort of the renovated building and calculate the corresponding energy saving rate.

Ecuador is a country with several climate zones. However, their behaviour is similar throughout the year, with no peaks of extreme temperatures in the various seasons. This paper is a first approach to study the adaptive comfort behaviour in several areas and populations of the country. Considering the ASHRAE 55-2020 model, energy simulation programmes are applied not just to the current climate scenario but also to the climate change scenarios of 2050 and 2100. The results of locations are analysed and compared to determine their performance. Thanks to their climate characteristics, adaptive comfort models could be applied as a passive strategy, using natural ventilation for building indoor comfort improvement, particularly social dwellings. According to previous studies, some prototypes have not considered the climate determinants in each region. Given the geographic situation of the study areas, the adaptive comfort model could be applied in all cases. Percentages of application of natural ventilation and heating and cooling degree hours have similar behaviours according to the climatic region, with a variation greater than 30% among them.

This paper investigates adaptive thermal comfort during summer in medical residences that are located in the French city of Troyes and managed by the Association of Parents of Disabled Children (APEI). Thermal comfort in these buildings is evaluated using subjective measurements and objective physical parameters. The thermal sensations of respondents were determined by questionnaires, while thermal comfort was estimated using the predicted mean vote (PMV) model. Indoor environmental parameters (relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, air temperature, and air velocity) were measured using a thermal environment sensor during the summer period in July and August 2018. A good correlation was found between operative temperature, mean radiant temperature, and PMV. The neutral temperature was determined by linear regression analysis of the operative temperature and Fanger's PMV model. The obtained neutral temperature is 23.7 °C. Based on the datasets and questionnaires, the adaptive coefficient α representing patients' capacity to adapt to heat was found to be 1.261. A strong correlation was also observed between the sequential thermal index n (t) and the adaptive temperature. Finally, a new empirical model of adaptive temperature was developed using the data collected from a longitudinal survey in four residential buildings of APEI in summer, and the obtained adaptive temperature is 25.0 °C with upper and lower limits of 24.7 °C and 25.4 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provided a platform to test various residential building control systems. • Used probability of occupancy to determine setback temperature when unoccupied. • Integrated optimizer with adaptive and occupancy control. • Generated dynamic electricity tariff based on wholesale electricity pricing. • Evaluated the peak load shaving potential with dynamic pricing and optimization. Energy consumption in buildings continues to rise with increased deployment of energy-consuming equipment such as Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) amid a growing world economy. Renewable energy is projected to comprise a majority of the future electricity supply, but the intermittent nature of renewables means that consumption must respond to dynamic supply for optimal utilization. This paper proposes a novel HVAC control strategy for residential buildings using the adaptive comfort model, considering occupancy through probability and real-time information, and optimizing the HVAC schedule to reduce cost, maintain thermal comfort, and respond to the dynamic availability of renewable energy while being generalizable to different situations. To validate this approach, the Universal CPS Environment for Federation (UCEF) co-simulation platform is used to connect advanced building controls with the building energy simulation software EnergyPlus. Simulations are performed for a residential building in Sacramento, CA during a typical summer week. Economic impacts, energy consumption, and thermal comfort are analyzed for traditional, adaptive, and occupancy-based control strategies under demand-based, tiered, and fixed electric tariff systems. Simulation results show that occupancy consideration, adaptive thermal comfort, and optimization can reduce cost by 50.1 %, electricity consumption by 52.9 %, and discomfort by 56.2 % compared to traditional fixed setpoints. The ability of the proposed HVAC control strategy to shift energy consumption away from peak times under a demand-based tariff system is qualitatively analyzed and findings suggest that maximum load-shifting on a grid-scale is attained using occupancy consideration with optimized control and demand-based pricing. For individual residential buildings, similar economic benefits can be gained using the less-complex adaptive HVAC control strategy with existing tiered or simple electric tariff systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A study on housing stock improvement potential in Mediterranean areas is presented. • Three typical case studies were chosen from the stock of a southern Spanish city. • Monitoring on environmental and electricity data and tests logged real performance. • Energy models were built and adjusted based on real occupancy conditions. • The considered building retrofits raise indoor temperature and reduce discomfort. Renovating buildings is one of the major targets within the current European goals toward decarbonized cities in 2050. The residential stock offers extensive opportunities to achieve current energy horizons, since more than 75% of the existing buildings in the European Union are energy deficient, with poorly insulated thermal envelopes which drive indoor conditions far from current comfort standards. This paper aims to provide a protocol for forecasting the upgrading potential of this housing stock in southern Europe, particularly in Mediterranean areas, identifying the level of obsolescence and possibilities for improvement, especially in winter indoor thermal conditions, offered by standard passive strategies. Following an architectural, constructive, and energy analysis of common patterns throughout the urban stock of the southern Spanish city of Córdoba, three case studies built-in 1951–1980 – pre-dating the first Spanish regulations on thermal conditioning in buildings – were selected for the assessment. Long-term monitoring and in situ tests (i.e., infrared thermography, airtightness) recorded the performance of these buildings under real occupancy conditions, subsequently incorporating them into the calibration of simulation energy models, aiming to predict the potential improvements after implementing standard passive strategies in these buildings. Results show that building retrofits not only improve the quality of indoor thermal conditions by increasing indoor temperatures by 3–4 °C but also almost eliminate occupied hours outside the comfort range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaporative cooling systems (ECS) in buildings, which are driven by cleaner and more sustainable energy, had been widely applied in recent years especially for the dry hot regions in summer. In this study, an investigation was conducted for office buildings by using ECS in Urumqi (China) from July to August 2021. Through subjective survey and objective measurements, 577 initial questionnaires and measured data were obtained. Outcomes showed that the indoor expectative temperature (Te) was received by 26.6 °C, 0.7 °C lower than neutral temperature (Tn). And the acceptable intervals for the 90% and 80% level were obtained at 27.1–28.9 °C and 26.4–30.3 °C, respectively. It appeared to possess a wider scope than that calculated by PMV algorithm, which further indicted that subjects have adapted to the local climate. Furthermore, the adjustment PMV models (ePMV, APMV) were found to have an effectively narrow gap comparing to the actual thermal sensation vote (TSV). The appropriate usage intervals of ePMV and APMV were quantified by Top < 27.6 °C/Top > 29.8 °C, 27.6 °C < Top < 29.8 °C, respectively. These findings may provide reference values for the revision of local energy-saving standard to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its excessive energy consumption, the building sector contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The type of thermal comfort models used to maintain the comfort of occupants has a direct influence on forecasting heating and cooling demands and plays a critical role in reducing actual energy usage in the buildings. In this research, a typical residential building was simulated to compare the heating and cooling loads in four different Jordanian climates when using an adaptive thermal model versus the constant setting of temperature limits for air-conditioning systems (19–24 °C). The air-conditioning system with constant temperature settings worked to sustain thermal comfort inside the building, resulting in a significantly increased cooling and heating load. By contrast, significant energy savings were achieved using the temperature limits of an adaptive thermal model. These energy savings equated to 1533, 6276, 3951, and 3353 kWh, which represented 29.3%, 80.5%, 48.5%, and 67.5% of the total energy used for heating and cooling for zones one, two, three, and four, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal comfort has an important role in human life, considering that people spend most of their lives in indoor environments. However, the necessity of ensuring the thermal comfort of these people presents an important problem, calculating the thermal comfort accurately. The assessment of thermal comfort has always been problematic, from past to present, and the studies conducted in this field have indicated that there is a gap between thermal comfort and thermal sensation. Although recent studies have shown an effort to take human psychology into account more extensively, these studies just focused on the physiological responses of the human body under psychological disturbances. On the other hand, the mood state of people is one of the most significant parameters of human psychology. Thus, this paper investigated the effect of occupants’ mood states on thermal sensation; furthermore, it introduced a novel “Mood State Correction Factor” (MSCF) to the existing thermal comfort model. To this aim, experiments were conducted at a mixed-mode building in a university between 15 August 2021 and 15 August 2022. Actual Mean Vote (AMV) and Profile of Mood States (POMS) were used to examine the effect of mood state on thermal sensation. The outcomes of this study showed that in the mood states of very pessimistic and very optimistic, the occupants felt warmer than the calculated one and the MSCFs are calculated as −0.125 and −0.114 for the very pessimistic and very optimistic mood states, respectively. It is worth our time to note that the experiments in this study were conducted during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and the results of this study could differ in different cultural backgrounds.