Adaptive comfort temperature model of air-conditioned building in Hong Kong

The indoor thermal climate is an important issue affecting the health and productivity of users in buildings. In designing of air-conditioning systems, it is believed that the conventional fixed temperature setpoint concept is not appropriates, the indoor comfort temperature depends on the outdoor air temperature and the business culture, such as the nature of activities, dress of occupants, etc. Researchers have been interested in investigating adaptive temperature control for a realistic in situ temperature control for comfort. Unfortunately, these studies put great emphasis on the energy saving opportunity, rather than providing an integrated solution. In this paper, we report the findings of a large-scale survey that was performed to develop new notions about adaptive comfort temperature (ACT) in buildings in humid sub-tropical Hong Kong, and determine the adaptive interface relationship of indoor comfort temperature with outdoor air temperature in order to preset the indoor air temperature as a function of outdoor air temperature. This ACT algorithm is intended to optimise the energy used for cooling that air, but achieve the acceptance of thermal comfort, as determined by physical measurements and subjective surveys. With the integration of the ACT model, the total percentage of energy saving is about 7%. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.