Adaptive Comfort

Conclusions
• Many more people have played a role in progressing the adaptive
comfort concept to what we recognise today.
• Much of the “action” appears in the East and South Asian regions. For
example, China continues to add 1 billion m 2 floor-area of new
construction per annum. Much (if not most) of the new adaptive comfort
research is happening in China nowadays and we will start seeing more
an more of it being published in English research journals.
• In developed economies the key challenge lies in retrofitting adaptive
comfort into existing buildings. The term “adaptive HVAC” has already
been coined. But this implies “weaning” occupants off tightly regulated
(static) indoor climates.
• Perhaps the final frontier for adaptive thermal comfort researchers will be
the “engineering of building occupants’ attitudes towards and
expectations of indoor climates. Green buildings need green occupants!