Occupant time period of thermal adaption to change of outdoor air temperature in naturally ventilated buildings

The present work proposed a method to determine time period of thermal adaption of occupants in naturally ventilated building, based on the relationship between their neutral temperatures and running mean outdoor air temperature. Based on the data of the field investigation, the subjects’ time period of thermal adaption was obtained with the proposed method. The result revealed that the subjects needed to take 4.25 days to fully adapt to a step-change in outdoor air temperature. The time period of thermal adaption for the occupants in five European countries was also calculated and compared with the value of the subjects in this study. The comparison shows that the occupants in China might have a shorter time period of thermal adaption than European occupants, which means that Chinese occupants can adapt to a new outdoor climate condition faster.