Personal differences in thermal comfort perception: Observations from a field study in Brisbane, Australia

作者：Tobias Kramer, Veronica Garcia-Hansen, Sara Omrani, Jin Zhou, Dong Chen · 发表于：Building and Environment · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110873 · 被引用次数：15 · 研究领域：Building Energy and Comfort Optimization、Urban Heat Island Mitigation、Noise Effects and Management

Despite substantial evidence emphasising the diversity in thermal comfort perception, conventional models like the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) index tend to overlook personal variability. In buildings, this oversight leads to occupant discomfort, dissatisfaction, and inefficient energy use for conditioning. In the past, technological and logistical constraints made personalised field studies an arduous task. However, today recent advancements in low-cost sensor technology allow one to pervasively capture the immediate and personal thermal environment experienced by building occupants. Between summer and winter 2022, we conducted a field study across 13 office buildings in Brisbane, Australia, investigating the personal variability in thermal comfort perception. Throughout the study, we recorded over 135,000 samples of continuous personal indoor environmental data at participants' workspaces and collected 813 occupant survey responses. Analysing the data, we found (1) significant personal variability between subjects, evident in a personal mean discrepancy from the PMV index ranging from −1.5 to +1.5 on the thermal comfort scale; (2) a limited accuracy of the PMV index ranging between 35 and 40%; when predicting the subject’s thermal sensation vote, (3) offices with highly heterogeneous thermal indoor environments; (4) dissatisfaction with the workspace due to thermal discomfort and insufficient control of the personal thermal environment. Our findings suggest a high personal an...