Adaptive comfort opportunities under mechanically conditioned environment

Despite being provided by mechanical ambient conditioning systems or not, all building have to a certain extent a degree of adaptation. Studies have shown that with either a weak or strong dependency to outdoor conditions there always are adaptive opportunities that might have a significant impact on comfort perception. Changes on building design have also affected occupant’s expectations and the way they perceive thermal comfort. Based on the current usage of cooling systems this paper intend to derive how adaptive the systems already are and what possibilities are to heed to a more adaptive pattern. In this paper are compared spaces conditioned with different cooling systems, from all air HVAC systems to mixed-mode rooms with split units. The adaptability to variable conditions and occupant’s expectations are studied as a function of the type building through field studies.