Effect of inhabitant behavioral responses on adaptive thermal comfort under hot summer and cold winter climate in China

The hot summer and cold winter zone is an important area in China, accommodated with huge population and occupying a great amount of the lands. Due to the local climate and long-term economic conditions, the adaptive thermal sensation of local residents and the thermal regulation behaviors have unique characteristics. The thermal regulation behaviors involve complicated dynamic features and many influencing factors. However, due to the limited experimental testing conditions, it is greatly lack of relevant studies on the characteristics of different thermal regulation behaviors and their influences on both indoor thermal environment and the thermal comfort in this zone. Aiming at this, taking the residential buildings in Hangzhou city as the main object, a large-scale questionnaire surveys and measurements were conducted. The characteristics of various types of thermal regulation behaviors and the annual indoor thermal environment are analyzed. The effects of each regulation behavior on the indoor thermal environment and the adaptive thermal comfort are revealed. Rectified adaptive coefficients for the actual situation of Hangzhou residents are proposed and it is proved that the modified values can be used to evaluate the adaptive thermal sensation of the local residents more precise than the original ones used in the National Standard GB/T 50,785–2012. Incorporating the modified adaptive coefficient λ into the APMV model, the potential impact of summer ventilation on thermal comfort is quantified. The research results can provide theoretical support for the energy saving-oriented indoor thermal comfort research in the region.