Sensitivity of Human Thermal Comfort Benchmarks to Background Temperature and Individual Factors: An Empirical Study in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Individuals often adopt distinct behavioral patterns to adapt to different weathers. However, most studies on outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) fail to consider weather variability and associated individual factors as interventions. Therefore, this study analyzed the thermal feedback of different groups of residents under various weather temperatures during winter and summer, utilizing field experiments and questionnaire surveys conducted over 12 days in two residential areas of Wuhan, China. It was found that weather temperature has a substantial effect on the relationship between thermal sensation and thermal comfort in residents, and this effect is particularly pronounced in winter. The effect of age on the relationship between thermal sensation and thermal comfort was more notable in winter, while the effect brought by gender was notable in summer. Weather temperature have a greater impact on people's thermal benchmarks in summer than in winter. As summer weather temperatures rise, thermal sensation of the youth and middle-aged has a more obvious increase than that of the elderly, and males have a more obvious increase than females. The range of thermal acceptance temperatures was widening with age, and the older were willingness to accept lower temperatures. Females also had a wider range of thermal acceptance temperatures than males and favored cooler environments. In the OTC study in Wuhan, Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) demonstrated better suitability than Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET). Overall, this study enhances understanding of OTC across different groups in varied weather conditions, offering insights for effective microclimate regulation and outdoor thermal comfort strategies.

Keywords: Thermal comfort, Benchmark, Background temperature, Individual behavior, Individual characteristics, Variability