Development of Adaptive Prediction Mean Vote (APMV) Model for the Elderly in Guiyang, China

As aged, elderly people require a thermal-comfortable dwelling environment for living but some of them are not satisfied with the indoor environment primarily due to underestimation of comfortable temperature. The objective of this paper is to ascertain the comfortable temperature expected by the elderly in Guiyang, China by developing adaptive predict mean vote (APMV). The establishment of APMV model was comprised of two stages: theoretical derivation of APMV model and distribution of questionnaire and measurement. From questionnaire and measurement, adaptive coefficient λ which represents elderly capacity to adapt to cooling was determined to be 0.32 and further comfortable temperature by APMV is 20.54 degree, which was higher than 18.30 predicted by PMV model. By applying APMV model, an innovative and effective building design may be inspired to obtain a thermal comfortable environment and building energy efficiency.