Considering the adaptive comfort approach, this article estimates if interior conditions in London’s naturally ventilated residential stock are comfortable under the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and predicts if climate change will further affect comfort levels. A discussion whether the UHI is currently saving or aggravating energy consumption in buildings is presented. The affection that climate change may have in the energy performance of buildings in the future is also estimated. The most representative household profiles in London have been modelled and simulated.

In this paper, we propose a new calculation method for evaluating the inhomogeneous outdoor thermal environment by incorporating a multi-node human thermoregulation model into the simulation method based on CFD analysis of the outdoor thermal environment. We also investigated the effects of weather conditions on the inhomogeneity of the radiant environment and the thermal comfort for pedestrians using the proposed calculation method. Two different weather condition cases are investigated in this study: (1) a scorching hot day and (2) a cloudy day.

The paper is focused on identifying factors affecting the energy consumption & comfort conditions of multi-storied apartments in composite climate of north India. The findings reveal that the residents are very well adapted to their thermal environment and are comfortable at a broader temperature range (22.5–30.6 °C). The TSV-PMV difference was observed to be fairly significant for the winter and summer period, i.e. 50C and 1.10C respectively whereas marginally differed for the annual data i.e. 0.60 C. The energy-use evaluation through simulations has identified solar gain through ext.

The Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI assesses the interaction of ambient temperature, wind, humidity and radiant fluxes on human physiology in outdoor environments on an equivalent temperature scale. It is based on the UTCI-Fiala model of human thermoregulation and thus also allows for thermal comfort prediction.

In recent years, more and more tall buildings have a mixed-use or residential program. This shift from formerly mainly office use requires new evaluations and guidelines for occupant comfort. This paper examines the relationship between the structural core of the building, its floor plan, the overall shape and its potential for natural ventilation, and how these relate to human comfort, energy efficiency and structural performance. The results are qualitative recommendations for the initial design stage of a tall building in a given climate zone.

Climate responsive design ensures thermal comfort in buildings without using excessive energy for heating and cooling. This study explores how the relationship between the quantity of north (equator) facing window area, the quantity of thermal capacity and the distribution of thermal capacity in a space can improve comfort and energy efficiency in residential buildings in Australia, and optimise lifetime CO2-e emissions. The study concludes that thermal capacity can improve the thermal efficiency of the simulated structure, primarily through its influence on annual cooling loads.

A current trend is to consider that the presence of free hanging sound absorbers (FHU) installed in Thermally Activated Buildings (TABS) reduces the thermal comfort by lowering radiative and convective exchanges with the cooled concrete slab. In this study we propose a simple thermal model of FHU which may be implemented into building simulation software like TRNSys. This model considers convective and radiative exchanges but also the air flows above and below FHU. Experimentally, we observe that a ceiling coverage of 50% leads to a operative temperature increase of 0.3°C.

Large sets of thermal comfort field data have been analysed in detail to inform generalized thermal comfort standards, but there is specific information that might be relevant to particular projects that is not easily accessed by practitioners. We developed interactive tools that allow users to explore the data and look at the subsets that are most interesting to them because of location, culture, building type, etc.

In Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, Mark Lynas describes possible world scenarios as global temperatures rise. The central region of Brazil, where Brasília is located, will suffer major changes in its microclimate.Brasília's built environment has already provided a comfortable indoor and outdoor condition through planned urban design and vegetation.

Visual comfort is important to the wellbeing of people and their productivity. However, too much light in the field of view can cause discomfort and disability glare. Under certain conditions it can even cause accidents. This paper addresses the disability glare created by veiling glare and the effect it may have of reducing the visual performance in outdoor spaces. Veiling glare is a particular case when light is reflected off a surface and causes annoyance or impairment of a task to the person in a particular view angle.