Thermal comfort requirements in the summer season in subtropical urban spaces

This article presents some of the findings from a thermal comfort study performed in subtropical China. This study was carried out in 17 different urban spaces during the summer of 2010. Thermal environmental measurements were taken and questionnaire surveys were used to assess the thermal comfort of subjects. Thermal comfort requirements and the effect of gender on thermal comfort were analysed. Neutral operative temperature was found to be 28.6 degrees C and preferred temperature occurred at 24.7 degrees C. By using the direct thermal acceptability assessment method, this article also demonstrated a new correlation between percentage of thermal dissatisfaction (PD) and thermal sensation vote (TSV) which is different from the predicted mean vote-predicted percentage dissatisfied model. The acceptable temperature range was 25.3-32.3 degrees C in summer. Besides, the results show significant gender differences in urban spaces in terms of neutral temperature, preferred temperature and optimum wind speed.