Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep 28;10(1):662.
doi: 10.1038/s41597-023-02568-3.

The Chinese thermal comfort dataset

Liu Yang  1   2 , Shengkai Zhao  1   2 , Yongchao Zhai  3   4 , Siru Gao  1   2 , Feixiang Wang  1   2 , Zhiwei Lian  5 , Lin Duanmu  6 , Yufeng Zhang  7 , Xiang Zhou  8 , Bin Cao  9 , Zhaojun Wang  10 , Haiyan Yan  11 , Hui Zhang  12 , Edward Arens  12 , Richard de Dear  13
Affiliations

The Chinese thermal comfort dataset

Liu Yang et al. Sci Data. .

Abstract

Heating and cooling in buildings accounts for over 20% of total energy consumption in China. Therefore, it is essential to understand the thermal requirements of building occupants when establishing building energy codes that would save energy while maintaining occupants' thermal comfort. This paper introduces the Chinese thermal comfort dataset, established by seven participating institutions under the leadership of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology. The dataset comprises 41,977 sets of data collected from 49 cities across five climate zones in China over the past two decades. The raw data underwent careful quality control procedure, including systematic organization, to ensure its reliability. Each dataset contains environmental parameters, occupants' subjective responses, building information, and personal information. The dataset has been instrumental in the development of indoor thermal environment evaluation standards and energy codes in China. It can also have broader applications, such as contributing to the international thermal comfort dataset, modeling thermal comfort and adaptive behaviors, investigating regional differences in indoor thermal conditions, and examining occupants' thermal comfort responses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of the data collection and quality control processes.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Subjective questionnaire and physical environment measurements.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Location of the field studies contained in thermal comfort dataset of China. The summer moths are June, July, and August. The transitional seasons include spring (March, April, and May) and autumn (September, October, and November). The winter months are December, January, and February.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Distributions of thermal comfort dataset under different conditions.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Contour diagram of parameter variation in different climate zones: (a) Severe cold zone; (b) Cold zone; (c) Hot summer & cold winter zone; (d) Hot summer & warm winter zone; (e) Mild zone.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Theoretical (a) and actual (b) relationship among TSV, TAV and TCV.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Indoor air temperature distributions in different climate zones, seasons, and operation modes.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Indoor relative humidity distributions in different climate zones, seasons, and operation modes.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Outdoor air temperature and relative humidity distributions in different climate zones and seasons.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Thermal sensation vote in different climate zones, seasons, and operation modes.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Clothing insulation in different climate zones, seasons, and operation modes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Energy Information Administration. International Energy Outlook 2016. Washington, D.C.: EIA (2016).
    1. Building Energy Research Center, Tsinghua University. 2020 report Annual Report on China Building Energy Efficiency (in Chinese) (China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing, 2020).
    1. Wu JL, Lian ZW, Zheng ZL, Zhang HB. A method to evaluate building energy consumption based on energy use index of different functional sectors. Sustain Cities Soc. 2019;53:101893.
    1. Yang L, Yan HY, Lam JC. Thermal comfort and building energy consumption implications - A review. Appl. Energy. 2014;115:164–173.
    1. Wang Z, et al. Individual difference in thermal comfort: a literature review. Build. Environ. 2018;138:181–193.