ADAPTIVE THERMAL COMFORT AND BEHAVIOURAL ADAPTATION OF RURAL RESIDENTS AND THEIR ENERGY-SAVING POTENTIALS: A CASE STUDY IN LANKAO IN THE COLD CLIMATE ZONE OF CHINA

Zhao, Wei (2022) ADAPTIVE THERMAL COMFORT AND BEHAVIOURAL ADAPTATION OF RURAL RESIDENTS AND THEIR ENERGY-SAVING POTENTIALS: A CASE STUDY IN LANKAO IN THE COLD CLIMATE ZONE OF CHINA. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

Text 201288472_Dec2021.pdf - Unspecified Access to this file is embargoed until 1 August 2024. Download (4MB)

Abstract

Building energy consumption in maintaining comfortable built environment has become a critical issue under the background of climate change, energy shortage issues and carbon emission reduction targets worldwide. The adaptive thermal comfort is a possible solution to a sustainable built environment that provides a comfortable indoor thermal environment and consume fewer energy. According to the adaptive theory of thermal comfort, adaptive thermal comfort differs among populations with different backgrounds. There is a lack of attention to the adaptive thermal comfort of rural residents in China, despite the large existing rural populations. This research focuses on the adaptive thermal comfort of rural residents in the Cold climate zone of China. The aim of this research is to investigate thermal comfort requirements and adaptation behaviours of rural residents in the Cold climate zone of China with the adaptive approach under the adaptive thermal comfort theory and to study their energy-saving potentials. This research is based on thermal comfort field surveys carried out in a typical winter season between 21st December 2018 and 23rd February 2019 and a typical summer season between 22nd July and 4th September 2019. Finally, 610 valid questionnaires were collected, of which 382 were from the winter field survey and 228 were from the summer field survey. Conclusions are drawn as follows: Indoor operative temperature in rural houses changes with outdoor climate, and the overcooling problem in winter was more severe than the overheating problem in summer; The majority of respondents felt “comfortable” “acceptable” in the indoor thermal environment in winter and summer; Adaptive thermal comfort models and comfort zones for rural residents were proposed; Indoor clothing insulation of rural residents is influenced by non-environmental factors and environmental factors in different ways and to different degrees; Dynamic indoor clothing insulation predictive models for rural residents was proposed; Adaptive thermal comfort and clothing adaptation of rural residents significantly change indoor setpoint temperature and have great energy-saving potentials.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2022 08:37
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:11
DOI:	10.17638/03150552
Supervisors:	Chow, David ORCID: 0000-0002-5963-6228
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3150552