Development of an adaptive model for thermal comfort in the office buildings of Nagasaki City, Japan

¹ Graduate School of Engineering, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan
² Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Japan
³ School of Architecture, Mukogawa Women’s University, Japan
⁴ Graduate school of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan
⁵ Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan
⁶ Faculty of Environmental and Urban Engineering, Kansai University, Japan
⁷ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Japan
⁸ Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Hiroshima University, Japan
⁹ Faculty of Systems Science and Technology, Akita Prefectural University, Japan
¹⁰ Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Japan
¹¹ Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, Japan

Abstract

Thermal comfort in office buildings is instrumental in improving the productivity of employees while maintaining their health. The primary objectives of this research were to analyze the comfort temperature in Japanese office buildings and investigate its relationship with outdoor air temperature. Additionally, we examined the differences in comfort temperatures with respect to closed and opened windows to factor in the increase in the opening of windows during the COVID-19 pandemic when air-conditioning systems were operated. We investigated the environmental conditions of office buildings and the thermal comfort of the occupants through monthly visits to each office building over a year. Field data were collected from four office buildings located in Nagasaki City, with 1047 votes obtained from 143 participants. The survey indicated that the occupants were highly satisfied with the thermal environment in their offices. The correlation between indoor comfort temperature and outdoor temperature was high in the FR mode. Based on the analysis, we developed an adaptive model for office buildings in Nagasaki City and compared it with existing adaptive models used for buildings in other regions of Japan. The proposed model is useful for energy-saving designs that bring out human adaptive capacity.