Energy & Buildings 186 (2019) 56–70 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy & Buildings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild Adaptive thermal comfort in naturally ventilated dormitory buildings in Changsha, China Zhibin Wu a,b , Nianping Li a,b,∗ , Pawel Wargocki c , Jingqing Peng a,b , Jingming Li a,b , Haijiao Cui a,b a College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410081, China b Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Energy Efficiency (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, China c Technical University of Denmark, Niels Koppels Alle, Building 402, Kgs. Lyngby, 2800, Denmark a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 28 September 2018 Revised 19 December 2018 Accepted 15 January 2019 Available online 23 January 2019 Keywords: Thermal comfort Thermal adaptation Neutral temperature Naturally ventilated dormitory buildings a b s t r a c t This research focused on investigating thermal comfort in naturally ventilated (NV) dormitory buildings in hot summer and cold winter (HSCW) climate zone in China. A field study was conducted during the summer of 2016 in Changsha, located in HSCW climate zone. The occupants reported subjective thermal perception using questionnaires and ambient environmental variables were measured simultaneously. A total of 11 NV dormitory buildings were investigated. 467 valid sets of measurement data and subjec- tive questionnaires were obtained. Both Griffiths and linear regression analysis showed that the neutral operative temperature (T o ) was 26.2 °C. The upper limit for 80% acceptability was determined as 28.5 °C. The most acceptable operative temperature was 26.6 °C. 80% of occupants were comfortable at the tem- perature range between 25 °C and 28.7 °C. Based on this study, the adaptive model was developed and verified. The adaptive behaviors of clothing adjustment and air velocity adjustment were closely corre- lated to indoor T o . The functions of adaptive thermal behaviors can be used for building simulation. The results can be used to assess indoor thermal comfort in buildings, and help to build a more rigorous database for building designing. © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Indoor thermal environment is built by both passive and active strategies. Pérez-Lombard et al. [1] indicated that 70% of energy use in buildings is consumed by air-conditioning systems and artificial lighting. Because of the global climate changes over the past few decades, buildings need to be designed reducing energy use while maintaining occupants’ comfort. Thermal comfort plays an important role in building environ- ment, as people spend more than 80% time indoors [2]. Thermal comfort is defined as “the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment” in ASHRAE [3]. Con- structing and evaluating thermal comfort are complex problems. In the 1970s, Fanger’s PMV model [4] was proposed to predict occupants’ thermal comfort, based on the heat balance model of the human body and subjective responses to climate chamber environments. The PMV model is adopted in ISO 7730 [5] and ASHRAE 55–2013 [3]. However, thermal environment is kept con- ∗ Corresponding author at: College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Chang- sha 410081, China. E-mail address: linianping@126.com (N. Li). stant through air-conditioning systems in the laboratory studies [6,7]. As a result, the PMV model is ideal for evaluating static and air-conditioned spaces. Previous thermal comfort studies revealed that both indoor environment and outdoor climate have a significant impact on human thermal comfort through thermal adaptation [8,9]. A paradigm shift, from the determinism of Fanger’s comfort model to the acceptance of the adaptive comfort model, has happened during recent years [10]. Humphreys [11] conducted first thermal comfort field studies and used an adaptive model to explain thermal comfort. De Dear et al. [8,12] proposed a thermal adaptive model in a more systematic form, based on a global database of thermal comfort field studies [13]. McCartney and Nicol [14] con- ducted thermal comfort field studies in Europe and proposed an adaptive control algorithm. Many thermal comfort field studies focusing on adaptive thermal comfort have been conducted around the world, especially in Europe [15–17], America [18], Australia [19–21], Japan [22–25] etc. Through the efforts of numerous researchers, the adaptive comfort model in built environment was developed rapidly. The adaptive comfort model has been recog- nized by current comfort standards, including ASHRAE Standard 55–2013 [3], EN 15,251 [26] and Chinese standard GB/T 50,785 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.01.029 0378-7788/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.