FIELD STUDY ON OCCUPANTS' COMFORT AND RESIDENTIAL THERMAL ENVIRONMENT IN A HOT-HUMID CLIMATE IN CHINA

摘要

This paper presents a field study of occupants' comfort and residential thermal environment in Changsha,Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which represents typical hot-humid climate of south China. The investigations were made in 2003 and 2004 summers. The acceptable thermal comfort conditions of investigated subjects were obtained and compared with ASHRAE standard. A total of 110 sets of questionnaires were provided by 110 subjects in the survey process, each was accompanied by physical indoor climatic measurements. Clothing insulation estimating for seated subjects (the average clothing, 0.54clo in summer) was supplemented by the incremental effect of chairs (0.15clo). Only 48.2% of the indoor surveying results fell into the ASHRAE Standard 55-1992 summer comfort zone, but about 87.3% of the occupants considered their thermal conditions acceptable because of adaptability measures taken by occupants. The operative temperature corresponding to the accepted thermal environment by 90% of the occupants is 22.0°C～25.9°C in summer. Thermal neutrality temperature,according to the responses to the ASHRAE seven-point sensation scale, occurred at 26.8°C in summer. Preferred temperature, defined as a mean temperature requested by respondents, was 22.8°C.