The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Adaptive Thermal Comfort: Principles and Practice
Abstract
The fundamental function of buildings is to provide safe and healthy shelter. For the fortunate they also provide comfort and delight. In the twentieth century comfort became a 'product' produced by machines and run on cheap energy. In a world where fossil fuels are becoming ever scarcer and more expensive, and the climate more extreme, the challenge of designing comfortable buildings today requires a new approach. This timely book is the first in a trilogy from leaders in the field which will provide just that. It explains, in a clear and comprehensible manner, how we stay comfortable by using our bodies, minds, buildings and their systems to adapt to indoor and outdoor conditions which change with the weather and the climate. The book is in two sections. The first introduces the principles on which the theory of adaptive thermal comfort is based. The second explains how to use field studies to measure thermal comfort in practice and to analyze the data gathered. Architects have gradually passed responsibility for building performance to service engineers who are largely trained to see comfort as the ‘product’, designed using simplistic comfort models. The result has contributed to a shift to buildings that use ever more energy. A growing international consensus now calls for low-energy buildings. This means designers must first produce robust, passive structures that provide occupants with many opportunities to make changes to suit their environmental needs. Ventilation using free, natural energy should be preferred and mechanical conditioning only used when the climate demands it. This book outlines the theory of adaptive thermal comfort that is essential to understand and inform such building designs. This book should be required reading for all students, teachers and practitioners of architecture, building engineering and management – for all who have a role in producing, and occupying, twenty-first century adaptive, low-carbon, comfortable buildings.
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In the citing paper
“At the same time, research has shown that people accept much broader thermal conditions than anticipated by above standards [1,3,14,47], andtheir perception of thermal conditions is much more dynamic [48–51].”
From Drivers of diversity in human thermal perception – A review for holistic comfort models (2018) · cites this paper as [1]
In the citing paper
“While these seven variables are able to explain part of the variance seen e.g. in Figure 1 by Nicol et al. [1], which is based on operative temperature only, there remains a high variance even when all six variables are considered.”
From Drivers of diversity in human thermal perception – A review for holistic comfort models (2018) · cites this paper as [1]
In the citing paper
“The data presented uncovers the diversity of thermal perception: on the one hand, people are feeling comfortable (4 on y-axis) between 20°C and 28°C. On the other hand, in the range between 22°C and 28°C votes between ‘much too warm’ (7 on y-axis) and ‘much too cool’ (1 on y-axis) can be found for any given temperature.”
From Drivers of diversity in human thermal perception – A review for holistic comfort models (2018) · cites this paper as [1]
In the citing paper
“Not surprisingly, the regression of comfort votes against operative temperature explains only 16% of the observed variance in the data.”
From Drivers of diversity in human thermal perception – A review for holistic comfort models (2018) · cites this paper as [1]
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Norouzi, M., Ghafourian, M., & Barzegar, Z. (2024) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4602787/v1
Rana, V., & Uprety, S. (2024) · Journal of Engineering Issues and Solutions · doi:10.3126/joeis.v3i1.65297
Localized Air Conditioning Can Enable Zero-Energy Buildings in South Asia
Trevelyan, J. P. (2024) · IntechOpen eBooks · doi:10.5772/intechopen.1006196
Design of Low-Cost Sensor-Based Solution to Support Thermal Comfort
Zepeda-Gil, C., García-Constantino, M., & Konios, A. (2024) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-77571-0_35
Análise da sensação térmica em ambientes arquitetônicos
da Conceição, M. M. M., Pereira, A., de Moraes, M. C., et al. (2025) · Cuadernos de Educación y Desarrollo · doi:10.55905/cuadv17n1-019
Díaz, L. A., Vásquez, N. G., & Piderit-Moreno, M. B. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5129354
An Experimental Study of Thermal Comfort in the Offices of an Educational BuildingPreprint
Mazandarani, M., Ting, D. S. ‐., & Stagner, J. (2025) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.5167912
Indoor Thermal Performance of Roof Using Vernacular Material in Hot Semi-arid Region
Tarun, C. S., & Vijayalaxmi, J. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-2428-7_3
Arango-Díaz, L., Vásquez, N. G., & Moreno, B. P. (2025) · Building and Environment · doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2025.113209
Maleki, A., Saligheh, E., Shahbazi, Y., et al. (2025) · The Culture of Islamic Architecture and Urbanism · doi:10.61186/ciauj.10.1.541
Allouzi, R., Karydis, N. D., & Nikolopoulou, M. (2025) · Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation/Advances in science, technology & innovation · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-86745-3_18
Disci, Z. N., Lawrence, R., & Sharples, S. (2025) · Indoor Air · doi:10.1155/ina/7858493
TUHH-Twin – Ein digitaler Zwilling für einen nachhaltigen Smart Campus
Geck, C. C. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-47573-4_7
Lai, H., Zhang, L., Tao, Y., Wang, J., Guo, F., Song, Y., Fu, I. C. S., Lau, S. S. Y., Zhang, J., Miao, Y., et al. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-6739-0_4
El-Mawgood, T. A. A., Ahmed, H. A. E.-M., & Sameh, H. S. H. (2025) · International Journal of Computational and Experimental Science and Engineering · doi:10.22399/ijcesen.4162 · Cited by 1
Thermal Adaptive Behavior-Recognition Model with Cross-Modal Knowledge Distillation
Duan, W., Yuan, W., Shen, D., et al. (2025) · Buildings · doi:10.3390/buildings15224071
Determinants of thermal comfort: analysis of public buildings in a post-transition context
Veselinović, L., Mangafić, J., & Lazović-Pita, L. (2025) · Financial Internet Quarterly · doi:10.2478/fiqf-2025-0027
Gupte, K. N., & Dubey, D. D. (2026) · Lecture notes in civil engineering · doi:10.1007/978-981-96-6332-3_14
Gender-based study on indoor thermal comfort in Kuwait during autumn and winter
El-Azzeh, S., Wright, A. J., Khattak, S. H., Salem, M., & Al-ajmi, F. F. (2026) · Architectural Science Review · doi:10.1080/00038628.2026.2637934
Caractérisation multi-échelle du comportement thermo hybride des enveloppes hygroscopiques
Medjelekh, D. (2015) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/693d1ee8z745bz4ec5z9d4aza98805465a64 · Cited by 5
Jaoude, R. A. (2020) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/ecf0e014zbfffz407fz970ez365af7eb9cbd
Alaboud, M., & Bazughayfan, K. (2026) · Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering · doi:10.1080/13467581.2026.2665985
Rahad, G. M., Shuvo, M. S. I., Hossain, J., et al. (2026) · Emerging trends in mechatronics · doi:10.1007/978-981-95-8696-7_4
Adaptive thermal comfort and healthy home metrics among minority households in the United Kingdom
Basha, M., & Uttley, J. (2026) · E3S Web of Conferences · doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202671605003
Costanzo, V., Evola, G., & Torrisi, M. (2026) · E3S Web of Conferences · doi:10.1051/e3sconf/202671603005
Thermal comfort of humanitarian relief tents and its improvement techniques
Rashid, M. A., & Aljubury, I. M. A. (2026) · AIP conference proceedings · doi:10.1063/5.0330634
Bhandari, S., & Rijal, H. B. (2026) · Japan Architectural Review · doi:10.1002/2475-8876.70106
Análisis de la arquitectura vernácula en Huejutla de Reyes
Trejo, Y. S., Serrano, J. M. B., Lagarda-García, F. O., et al. (2026) · Arandu-UTIC. · doi:10.69639/arandu.v13i3.2434
Shrestha, S., & Rijal, H. B. (2026) · Energies · doi:10.3390/en19174208
Liu, B., Wu, Y., Tong, H., et al. (2026) · Buildings · doi:10.3390/buildings16183638
Yan, G., Zhong, X., Zhao, L., et al. (2026) · Building Simulation · doi:10.1007/s12273-026-1465-5
Dang, T. H., & Pitts, A. (2026) · Lecture notes in civil engineering · doi:10.1007/978-981-95-6770-6_180
Gender Differences on Thermal Acceptability and Occupants Behavior in Japanese Office Buildings
Khadka, S., Rijal, H. B., & Yoshino, S. (2026) · Japan Architectural Review · doi:10.1002/2475-8876.70115
Metadata
- Authors
- Nicol, F., Humphreys, M., & Roaf, S.
- Venue
- Routledge eBooks
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Published
- 2012-03-15
- OpenAlex
- W2617826277
- Cited by
- 636
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 44 · 2022: 58 · 2021: 61 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 72 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 42.38
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Routledge eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Andalas University Repository (Andalas University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Building Energy and Comfort Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Heat Island Mitigation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Building energy efficiency and sustainability
- Keywords
- adaptive thermal comfort, occupant behavior, passive building design, low-energy buildings, low-carbon buildings, natural ventilation, mechanical conditioning, building energy efficiency, climate change adaptation, occupant comfort
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