INVESTIGATION OF OUTDOOR THERMAL COMFORT IN HOT AND HUMID ENVIRONMENT

A survey on outdoor thermal comfort was conducted in Chinese Taipei of the hot-humid climate environment. A total of 813 questionnaires were gathered from January to December 2007, along with monitoring of climate factors. The purpose was to understand the interviewees' perceptions about temperature, humidity, and wind velocity, as well as their expectations on thermal adaptation. Changes in thermal sensation were compared with climatic conditions of each month. The results revealed that, when confronted with thermal discomfort, 58.2% of the subjects chose to move to another location immediately, and 40% of these subject would resort to the indoors. The consequence is reduced usage rate of the outdoor spaces. It was also found in the one-year-long Survey that the subjects had a neutral temperature of 26.2 degrees C(new effective temperature, ET*) and a preferred temperature of 24.5 degrees C(ET*), indicating that a "cooler than neutral" environment was favored. However, the analysis on monthly records suggested subtle differences in neutral temperature and preferred temperature between winter and summer. This also accounted for the assumption that thermal preference varies with climate condition.