This study was undertaken to investigate seasonal adaptation to temperature in Japanese offices, with a view to suggesting an adaptive model for them. We measured temperatures in 11 office buildings and conducted thermal comfort transverse surveys of occupants for over a year in the Tokyo and Yokohama areas of Japan. We collected 4,660 samples from about 1350 people. The occupants were found to be highly satisfied with the thermal environment in their offices. Even though the Japanese government recommends the indoor temperature setting of 28°C for cooling and 20°C for heating, we found that the comfort globe temperature was 2.6°C lower in cooling mode and 4.3°C higher in heating mode, in line with the actual indoor temperatures. The monthly and seasonal variation in the temperature in the investigated offices was significantly lower than had been found in dwellings. The comfort temperature is related primarily to the indoor temperature, but an adaptive relationship can be derived to estimate the indoor comfort temperature from the prevailing outdoor temperature for similar office buildings.
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