jailcd2021031: Adaptive thermal comfort in evaporative cooling air-conditioned (ECA) buildings under the dry-hot climate in China

Abstract

Evaporative cooling air-conditioned (ECA) technology had been widely applied in recent years, especially for the regions that characterized by dry-hot climate in summer. In order to explore its specific indoor thermal environment and body adaptability, an investigation was conducted for hospital building standard rooms in Urumqi (China) during July to August, 2017. By using the methods of subjective survey and objective measurements, it could be observed that the actual thermal environment in ECA buildings could basically meet the comfort requirements, but there was still a willingness among occupants to be a bit cooler, the neutral temperature (Tn) was received by 27.3℃. Meanwhile, adaptive comfort model was established by regression analysis, form which the acceptable temperature range for 90% and 80% level could be gained of 27.1℃- 28.9℃ and 26.4℃-30.3℃, respectively, further indicted that occupants had a selective adaptation to local dry-hot climate in summer. The findings above illustrated that current energy efficiency standards underestimate the heat resistance of local residents which increased summer cooling loads to some extent, and the quantified results can save much energy on the premise of satisfying the indoor thermal comfort.