Thermal comfort requirements for occupants of semi-outdoor and outdoor environments in hot-humid regions

Providing thermally comfortable semi-outdoor and outdoor environments is essential to multi-functional public spaces such as museums, cultural centers and university campuses. Given the difficulty of controlling the thermal conditions, individuals may have reduced expectations regarding the thermal comfort of outdoor environments. An extensive field survey of five public places in Taiwan obtained 8077 sets of data. This study discussed thermal sensitivity and proposed thermal comfort ranges, neutral temperatures, and preferred temperatures for semi-outdoor and outdoor environments. The results show that occupants of semioutdoor and outdoor environments are more tolerant regarding thermal comfort than are occupants of indoor environments. Furthermore, global radiation appears to have greater potential to change subject thermal sensation than air movement. In a hothumid region such as Taiwan, semi-outdoor and outdoor environments, applied with sunshine eliminating design strategies, can effectively increase occupant thermal comfort.