Field investigation on thermal environment and comfort of people in a coastal village of Qingdao (China) during winter

Abstract Preferences regarding the thermal environment are different for people in different climates. To clarify the factors in the thermal environments and thermal comfort level of people living in cold coastal areas, a field investigation was conducted in a Chinese village in winter. The building features, heating methods, and environmental parameters were recorded. Subjects’ personal information and survey response were collected regarding thermal sensations, thermal comfort, thermal preferences, and humidity sensations and preferences. The results show that most houses use a heated Kang for heating, whereas others utilize a combined heated Kang and radiators. The indoor temperature varies with respect to different heating methods. An analysis of the thermal sensation votes (TSVs) shows that the TSVs are much lower than that predicted by the predictive mean vote (PMV). The thermal neutral temperature for local people is 13.7 °C. An adaptive model is deduced, and shows that the comfortable indoor temperature increases more slowly when the outdoor temperature increases than in the adaptive models reported in other studies. The results show that most local people feel comfortable and expect no changes in low-temperature environment. When the indoor air is quite humid, most subjects do not feel excessively humid and prefer no change. Local people take various adaptive behaviors when feeling cold, and are quite adaptive to low-temperature and/or humid environments. These findings provide comprehensive information regarding the thermal requirements of local people, and can be used to evaluate and improve the thermal environment for residences in cold coastal rural areas.