A Review of Thermal Comfort in Residential Buildings: Comfort Threads and Energy Saving Potential

Naja Aqilah, Hom Bahadur Rijal () and Sheikh Ahmad Zaki
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Naja Aqilah: Graduate School of Environmental and Information Studies, Tokyo City University, 3-3-1 Ushikubo-nishi, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama 224-8551, Japan
Hom Bahadur Rijal: Graduate School of Environmental and Information Studies, Tokyo City University, 3-3-1 Ushikubo-nishi, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama 224-8551, Japan
Sheikh Ahmad Zaki: Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kampung Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-23

Abstract: Residential buildings instigate a vital role in creating a safe and comfortable indoor living environment. The phenomenon of overheating, an impact of climate change, can cause a negative effect on residents’ productiveness and heat-related illnesses and can even force high pressure on electricity generation by increasing the risk of power outages due to excessive peak cooling and heating requirements. Various issues on building thermal comfort are being evolved and discussed in review articles. However, there are few articles that review the current condition of adaptive thermal comfort studies and the potential for energy savings in residential buildings. Therefore, the aims for this paper are to: identify comfort temperature ranges in residential buildings, investigate the correlation of comfort temperature with indoor and outdoor temperatures with the aid of ‘comfort threads’, and clarify the effect of adaptive measures on residential energy saving potential. This study obtained a large variation of residential comfort temperatures, which mostly depend on the climate and operation modes of the building. ‘Comfort threads’ explains that people are adapting to a large variation of indoor and outdoor temperatures and the wide range of comfort temperature could provide significant energy savings in residential buildings. This review provides insight on and an overview of thermal comfort field studies in residential buildings.

Keywords: thermal comfort; residential building; comfort temperature; adaptive model; energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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