Creating an adaptive model for office buildings in cold climate

Abstract

Japan's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 requires both efficient use of facilities and maintenance of comfort for office workers in office buildings. In this paper, we clarify comfort temperatures from adaptive model in an office building in Hokkaido, as well as examine the factors that influence a more comfortable office environment. In the thermal comfort declaration, “Neutral” was the most declared in the MX mode (ventilated environment regardless of heating/cooling use), and the office workers were satisfied with the thermal environment. The comfort temperature was around 25°C in both MX and HT modes (heated environment), and a positive correlation was observed between the comfort temperature and the moving average outdoor temperature in MX mode, which led us to propose an adaptive model. Although the outdoor temperature in this model was about 8 °C lower than in previous studies, the comfort temperature was within the same range. There was no correlation between the amount of clothing worn by workers and their perception of cold and heat, but there was a positive correlation with the amount of activity.