Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

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Adaptive model and the adaptive mechanisms for thermal comfort in

Japanese dwellings
H.B. Rijal a,∗, M.A. Humphreys b, J.F. Nicol b
a
Faculty of Environmental Studies, Tokyo City University, 3-3-1 Ushikubo-nishi, Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama, 224-8551, Japan
b
School of Architecture, Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to quantify the seasonal differences in the comfort temperature and to develop a domestic adap-
Received 15 May 2019 tive model for Japanese dwellings, thermal measurements, a thermal comfort survey, and an occupant
Revised 14 July 2019
behaviour survey were conducted for 4 years in the living and bedrooms of dwellings in the Kanto re-
Accepted 11 August 2019
gion of Japan. We have collected 36,114 thermal comfort votes from 244 residents of 120 dwellings. The
Available online 12 August 2019
results show that the residents are highly satisfied with the thermal environment of their dwellings. Peo-
Keywords: ple are well-adapted to the thermal condition of their dwellings, and thus the comfort temperature has
Japanese dwellings large seasonal differences in free running mode (FR): 9.4 K. An adaptive model for housing was derived
Field survey from the data to relate the indoor comfort temperature to the prevailing outdoor temperature, and the
Comfort temperature regression coefficient in the FR mode is notably higher (0.48) than that in office buildings. Such mod-
Adaptive model els are useful for the control of indoor temperatures. The adaptive model of thermal comfort is strongly
Adaptive mechanism
supported by the various adaptive actions reported by the residents.
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

1. Introduction
Indoor temperatures are an important factor in creating com-
fortable homes. An understanding of the locally required comfort
temperature can be useful in the design of dwellings and their
heating and cooling systems to avoid excessive energy use. Comfort
temperatures in Japanese homes based on field surveys have been
investigated by several researchers [1–8] (Table 1). However, there
are limitations to this research, with some studies being short, and
some based on small samples. Comfort temperatures vary accord-
ing to the month and season, and so they need long-term data
to establish the seasonal changes in people’s perceptions of indoor
temperature and their behavioural responses to it.
In 2004 ASHRAE [9] introduced into Standard 55 (Thermal en-
vironment conditions for human occupancy) an adaptive model1
applicable to naturally ventilated buildings, and in 2007 CEN
[10] proposed, in their Standard EN 15251, a similar adaptive model
for free-running naturally ventilated buildings. However, the data
underlying these standards did not include any data from Japanese
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rijal@tcu.ac.jp (H.B. Rijal).
1
By ‘adaptive model’ we mean an equation relating the prevailing outdoor tem-
perature to the temperatures found comfortable indoors.
dwellings. Also, most of the data were from offices. Rijal et al.
[11] proposed an adaptive model for Japanese offices. However, oc-
cupant behaviour is different in the office and at home [12], and
so none of these three adaptive models can be assumed to apply
to Japanese homes. According to the Japanese act on maintenance
of sanitation in buildings, law number: Act No. 20 of 1970, the
temperature range for performance halls, department stores, shops,
offices, schools and apartment houses is 17–28 °C [13]. In 2005,
the Japanese government recommended an indoor temperature of
28 °C for cooling and 20 °C for heating [14], and, it needs support
from field survey. Rijal et al. [3] conducted the survey in 30 houses
in the Gifu area and provided an adaptive model (Table 1). How-
ever, it is unknown how it fits with other areas of Japan. Due to
the short period of survey, Rijal et al. [4] and Katsuno et al. [5] just
compared the comfort temperature with CEN standard and CIBSE
guide (Table 1). Rijal et al. [8] proposed an adaptive model when
investigating window opening behaviour in Kanto area of Japan but
did not fully analyse for the various modes of heating and cooling,
as is done in this paper.
An adaptive model shows that the comfort temperature indoors
is related to the outdoor temperature, but being a ‘black box’ sta-
tistical model, it does not reveal its internal workings. We know
the input to the ‘black box’ and the output from it, but we don’t
fully know the mechanisms behind it. Adaptive thermal comfort

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109371
0378-7788/© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
2 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

depends on behavioural, physiological and psychological adapta-

Comparison

CEN, CIBSE
CEN, CIBSE
tions [15,16]. Residents use a variety of adaptive opportunities to
regulate their indoor thermal environment. We need to explore
their adaptive mechanisms to give support to the adaptive model

CEN

CEN
Adaptive model

–
–

–
set out in this paper.2
This paper presents the data from a long-term survey of the

Equation
thermal conditions and thermal comfort in 120 Japanese dwellings.

Yes

Yes
Yes
It explores the ways by which the occupants achieve thermal com-
–
–

–
–
–
27.6 fort, by opening or closing windows, by using fans and by turning
MM

9.9
heating or cooling on or off. The way indoor comfort is related to
–
–
–
–
–
–
the prevailing outdoor temperature is also explored and quantified,
to supply an ‘adaptive model’ specifically applicable to Japanese
18.9

16.5
HT

homes. To clarify the adaptive mechanism, the behavioural and

–
–

–
–
–

–
physiological adaptations were analysed.
27.1
27.1
27.5
26.7
26.8
CL

–
–

–
Comfort temperature (°C)

2. Field investigation
14.3∼27.3

FR: Free running mode, CL: Cooling mode, HT: Heating mode, MM: Mixed mode, Top : Indoor operative temp., Tg : Indoor globe temp., Ti : Indoor air temp., -: None.

Thermal measurements and thermal comfort surveys were con-

22.7

27.5
26.9
21.9
27.0
FR

ducted in the living and bedrooms of 120 dwellings in the Kanto

–
–

region of Japan (Kanagawa, Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba) from 2010

Variable

to 2014 [8,17,18]. Generally, an air conditioning unit is installed in

each room for heating and cooling. Stand fans and local heaters
Top
Tg
Ti
Ti
Ti
Ti
Ti
Ti

are available in most of dwellings. Some dwellings have a Kotatsu

(a small table with an electric heater underneath and covered by a
Summer, Autumn

quilt) for heating.

Table 2 shows the survey periods. Survey 2 was conducted for
Four years

one month, and the other surveys were conducted about one year.
One year

One year
Summer

Summer
Summer
Winter
Season

Even though the survey periods overlap in the survey 2 and 3, the
groups of houses investigated are different and thus we have sepa-
rated them in two survey groups. We had collected sufficient data
No. of votes

for summer, and thus we have investigated about 10 to 11 months

in survey 3 and 4. The indoor air temperature and the relative hu-
21,363
13,525

36,144
2879
1176
3135

midity were measured in the living rooms and bedrooms, away

459
396

from direct sunlight, at ten minute intervals using a data logger

(see Fig. 1 and Table 3). In addition, the globe temperature was
measured in the living room in surveys 3 to 5. The number of
People

subjects was 119 males and 125 females. Respondents completed

239
109

243

a questionnaire up to six times a day (voting interval is more than

47
78

31
25
70

one hour) in the living rooms, and twice in the bedroom (before
going to bed and after waking-up).
Literature review of comfort temperature and adaptive model in Japanese dwellings.

Living room, Bedroom

Living room, Bedroom

The thermal comfort survey was conducted in Japanese. The

subjective scales are shown in Table 4. The ASHRAE scale is fre-
Surveyed room

quently used to evaluate the thermal sensation vote (TSV), but the
Living room

Living room

words ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ imply comfort in Japanese, and thus the

Bedroom
Bedroom

modified thermal sensation vote (mTSV) was also used to evalu-

Indoor
Indoor

ate the thermal sensation (Table 4). To avoid a possible misunder-

standing of ‘neutral’, it was explained in the questionnaire as ‘neu-
tral (neither hot nor cold)’. Tobita et al. [19] and Rijal et al. [3] also
proposed a similar scale to avoid the problems of the ASHRAE
No. of houses

scale. It is also said that the optimum temperature occurs on the

cooler side in summer and on the warmer side in winter [20], and
120

120

so the scales of warmth sensation were supplemented by a scale

41

59
60

30

10
10

of thermal preference.
The window opening, fan/cooling/heating use were recorded in
binary form (0 = closed or off, 1 = open or on) during the ther-
Kansai
Kansai

Kanto
Kanto
Kanto
Kanto
Kanto

mal comfort vote. In surveys 1 and 2, clothing insulation data were

Area

Gifu

recorded using the check list and converted into clo value. In sur-
veys 3 to 5, the clothing insulation data were collected using the
scale shown in the Fig. 2.
We collected a total of 36,114 sets of thermal comfort votes over
Imagawa et al. [6]
Imagawa et al. [7]
Katsuno et al. [5]
Nakaya et al. [1]
Tobita et al. [2]

the four years. The outdoor air temperature and relative humidity,
Rijal et al. [3]
Rijal et al. [4]

Rijal et al. [8]

measured at 10-minutes intervals, were obtained from the nearest

References
Table 1

meteorological station.

2
IEA EBC Annex 69 is also trying to address these issues.
 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371 3

Table 2
Description of survey.

Survey period Surveyed Measured No. of subjects No. of votes

Survey room variables∗ No. of dwellings
Start date End date Male Female Total Living Bedroom

1 06–7–2010 18–7–2011 Living, Bed Ti , RHi 11 16 14 30 3300 2558

2 05–8–2011 06–9–2011 Living Ti , RHi 59 52 57 109 2861 –
3 21–7–2011 08–5–2012 Living, Bed Ti , RHi , Tg 10 11 12 23 463 984
4 25–7–2012 24–6–2013 Living, Bed Ti , RHi , Tg 30 26 28 54 13,083 7061
5 10–8–2013 09–8–2014 Living, Bed Ti , RHi , Tg 10 14 14 28 2679 3125
Total 120 119 125 244 22,386 13,728

Ti : Indoor air temperature (°C), RHi : Indoor relative humidity (%), Tg : Indoor globe temperature (°C), ∗ : Tg is measured only in the living room.

Fig. 1. Details of the thermal measurement.

Table 3
Description of the instruments.

Parameter measured Trade name Range Accuracy

Air temperature, RH TR-74Ui 0 to 55 °C, 10 to 95% RH ±0.5 °C, ±5%RH

Air temperature, RH RTR-53A 0 to 55 °C, 10 to 95% RH ±0.3 °C, ±5%RH
Globe temperature∗ Tr-52i −60 to 155 °C ±0.3 °C
SIBATA 080340-75 – –
∗
RH: Relative humidity, Black painted 75 mm diameter globe, -: None.

Table 4
Questionnaires for thermal comfort survey.

No. TSV mTSV (literal English translation) Thermal preference Skin moisture

1 Cold Very cold Much warmer None

2 Cool Cold A bit warmer Slightly
3 Slightly cool Slightly cold No change Moderate
4 Neutral (neither cool nor warm) Neutral (neither cold nor hot) A bit cooler Profuse
5 Slightly warm Slightly hot Much cooler -
6 Warm Hot - -
7 Hot Very hot - -

TSV: Thermal sensation vote, mTSV: modified thermal sensation vote.

3. Results and discussion
The dwellings could be described as ‘mixed mode’ (MM), in that
heating and cooling were available in all dwellings, but used only
when the occupants felt the need of them. The data were divided
into three groups. If heating was in use at the time of the voting,
the data were classified as being in the heating mode (HT). If cool-
ing was in use at the time of the voting, the data were classified as
being in the cooling mode (CL). If neither heating nor cooling were
in use, the data were classified as being in the free-running mode
(FR). The CL and HT modes are distinct groups of data. Generally,
cooling was used only in summer and heating only in winter. Data
from the CL and HT modes were kept separate during analysis.3
3.1. Thermal environment at the times of voting
The seasonal range of the indoor temperature and outdoor air
temperature was quite large (Fig. 3). The mean indoor air tem-
peratures and globe temperatures were almost the same (Fig. 3,
3
The classification differs from that used in the CIBSE Guide [22], and in current
ISO Standard EN 15251 [10] and ASHRAE Standard 55 [9].
4 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

Fig. 2. Scale of clothing insulation [21].

Table 5
Temperatures and relative humidity in various modes [18].

FR CL HT
Variables
n Mean S.D. n Mean S.D. n Mean S.D.

Indoor air temp., Ti (°C) 25,195 23.7 5.3 6532 27.3 1.9 3582 18.9 2.9
Indoor globe temp., Tg (°C) 11,012 23.5 4.5 2951 27.6 1.7 2256 19.6 2.8
Tg -Ti (°C) 10,913 0.0 0.5 2680 0.1 0.7 2256 0.2 1.2
Outdoor air temp. (°C) 25,339 18.9 8.0 6802 27.6 2.7 3604 7.2 4.2
Indoor relative humidity (%) 25,195 59 11 6532 57 9 3582 48 11
Outdoor relative humidity (%) 24,495 68 18 6789 76 11 3603 56 19

n: Number of sample, S.D.: Standard deviation.

Table 6
Correlation coefficients in various modes.

Mode Items Ti : To Tg : To Ti : Tg RHi : RHo

FR r 0.89 0.84 0.99 0.52

n 25,180 11,004 10,913 24,336
CL r 0.26 0.35 0.92 0.17
n 6531 2951 2680 6518
HT r 0.31 0.23 0.91 0.18
n 3582 2256 2256 3581

Ti : Indoor air temp. (°C), Tg : Indoor globe temp. (°C), To : Out-

door air temp. (°C), RHi : Indoor relative humidity (%), RHo : Out-
door relative humidity (%), p < 0.001, p: Significant level, r: Cor-
relation coefficient, n: Number of sample.

Fig. 5 shows the relation between the indoor globe temperature

Fig. 3. Monthly mean temperature in FR mode with 95% confidence intervals
(mean ± 2 S.E.).
Table 5). The Japanese government recommends indoor tempera-
ture of 20 °C in winter and 28 °C in summer. The results show that
the mean indoor temperatures during heating and cooling were
close to this recommendation. However, the mean indoor temper-
atures in winter months in FR mode were 17.1 to 17.6 °C which
are 3.4 to 5.4 °C higher than the previous studies [3]. As we will
discuss in Section 3.6, residents may adapt to low temperature by
clothing adjustments.
Fig. 4 shows the relation between the indoor and outdoor air
temperature. The indoor air temperature in FR mode has a wider
range than either the CL mode or the HT mode. As would be ex-
pected, the indoor temperature in the free-running mode is much
more dependent on the outdoor temperature than it is in the other
modes. Similarly the correlation between indoor and outdoor tem-
perature (Table 6) for the FR mode is much higher than for the CL
or HT mode.
and indoor air temperature. The different between the globe tem-
perature and air temperature is small (Table 5). As expected, they
are very highly correlated (Table 6). Because of these very high cor-
relations, and because the globe temperature was recorded in only
some of the surveys, the analysis continues using air temperature
as the measure of the indoor environment.
3.2. Comparing the two thermal sensation scales
In this section we show that the modified thermal sensation
scale (mTSV) is better than the ASHRAE scale (TSV) for these data.
We regressed the thermal responses on the indoor air tempera-
ture. Tables 7 and 8 compare the regression statistics. It is ap-
parent that the thermal sensation when expressed on the mTSV
scale correlates more closely with the indoor air temperature than
it does when expressed on the TSV scale. It consequently has a
smaller residual standard deviation, which indicates that people
agree more closely on their thermal sensation at any particular
temperature when this scale is used (i.e. their responses are more
similar). The regression coefficients are similar for the two scales.
 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371 5

Fig. 4. Relation between the indoor and outdoor air temperature (Note: n is number in the sample, R2 is coefficient of determination, S.E. is standard error of the regression
coefficient and p is significance level of regression coefficient.).

Fig. 5. Relation between the indoor globe temperature and indoor air temperature.

Table 7 Table 8
Regression analysis of thermal sensation and indoor air temperature. Correlation coefficients of the TSV or mTSV and each variable.

Residual Overall TSV mTSV

Regression standard standard Mode Items
TP Ti TP Ti
Number of coeffi- Correlation deviation deviation
Scale votes cient/K coefficient of vote of vote FR r 0.79 0.60 0.86 0.68
n 15,436 15,259 23,465 25,177
TSV 22,776 0.124 0.48 1.06 1.21
CL r 0.70 0.24 0.80 0.28
mTSV 35,337 0.110 0.63 0.70 0.90
n 5100 4750 6447 6528
TSV: Thermal sensation vote, mTSV: modified thermal sensation vote. HT r 0.70 0.18 0.79 0.30
n 2785 2724 3578 3582

The mTSV is more smoothly related than is the TSV to the thermal
preference [17] (Fig. 6). We have also found similar trend in the
previous studies [11,23,24]. It was concluded that the mTSV scale
is superior to the TSV scale for these data, and it is therefore used
to present the analysis.
3.3. Thermal comfort zone
Fig. 7 shows the distribution of thermal sensation in each mode.
Even when the residents used heating or cooling, they sometimes
felt ‘cold’ or ‘hot’. The results show that the residents were gen-
erally satisfied with the thermal environment in their dwellings,
TP: Thermal preference, Ti : Indoor air temp. (°C), p < 0.001, p: Significant level,
r: Correlation coefficient, n: Number of sample.
votes in the three central categories of the mTSV scale predomi-
nating (FR: 88%, CL: 95%, HT: 88%).
To locate the thermal comfort zone, Probit regression analysis
was conducted for the modified thermal sensation vote (mTSV)
categories and the indoor air temperature for each mode. The anal-
ysis method is Ordinal regression using Probit [24–26] as the link-
function and the air temperature as the covariate [11]. The results
are shown in Table 9.
The temperature corresponding to the mean response (Pro-
bit = 0) is calculated by dividing the constant by regression
6 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

Table 9
Results of the probit analysis.

Mode Equation∗ Mean S.D. n R2 S.E.

FR [18] P(≤1) = 0.211Ti -1.0 4.7 4.739 25,177 0.48 0.002

P(≤2) = 0.211Ti -2.5 11.8
P(≤3) = 0.211Ti -3.8 18.0
P(≤4) = 0.211Ti -6.2 29.4
P(≤5) = 0.211Ti -7.2 34.1
P(≤6) = 0.211Ti -8.2 38.9
CL P(≤1) = 0.176Ti -1.6 9.1 5.682 6528 0.08 0.008
P(≤2) = 0.176Ti -2.2 12.5
P(≤3) = 0.176Ti -3.3 13.1
P(≤4) = 0.176Ti -5.7 32.4
P(≤5) = 0.176Ti -6.6 37.5
P(≤6) = 0.176Ti -7.3 41.5
HT P(≤1) = 0.122Ti -0.1 0.8 8.179 3582 0.09 0.007
P(≤2) = 0.122Ti -1.1 9.0
P(≤3) = 0.122Ti -1.9 15.6
P(≤4) = 0.122Ti -4.4 36.1
P(≤5) = 0.122Ti -5.5 45.1
∗
: All regression coefficients are significant (p < 0.001), P(≤1) is the Probit of proportion of
the votes that are 1 and less, P(≤2) is the Probit of the proportion that are 2 and less, and so
on., Ti : Indoor air temperature (°C), S.D.: Standard deviation, n: Number of sample, R2 : Cox
and Snell R2 , S.E.: Standard error of the regression coefficient.

coefficient. The inverse of the Probit regression coefficient is the

standard deviation of the cumulative Normal distribution. For ex-
ample, the standard deviation of air temperature of the FR mode
will be 1/0.211 = 4.739 °C (Table 9). Transforming the Probits us-
ing the following function into proportions gives the curves of
Fig. 8a–c. The vertical axis is the proportion of votes.

Probability = CDF.NORMAL(quant, mean, S.D. ) (1)

where ‘CDF.NORMAL’ is the Cumulative Distribution Function for

Fig. 6. Relation between the thermal sensation and thermal preference. The
‘warmer’ category includes ‘a bit warmer’ and ‘much warmer’ and the ‘cooler’ in-
cludes ‘a bit cooler’ and ‘much cooler’. The ‘warmer’ or ‘cooler’ line is the cumu-
lative percentage and ‘no change’ line is the actual percentage for each thermal
sensation vote.
the normal distribution, ‘quant’ is the indoor air temperature (°C);
the ‘mean’ and ‘S.D.’ are given in the Table 9.
The highest line on Fig. 8(a) is for category 1 (very cold) and so
on successively. The lines represent, not the proportion casting a
particular thermal sensation vote but the proportion casting votes
equal-to-or-less-than a particular vote [26]. As the temperature
rises the proportions finding the indoor environment very cold will
decrease and the proportion finding it very hot will increase. The
area of ‘4. Neutral’ is wider than the other scales. Thus, it can be
seen that the temperatures for thermal neutrality (a probability of
0.5) is around 24 °C (Fig. 8(a)). Reckoning the three central cate-
gories as representing thermal comfort, and transforming the Pro-
bits into proportions gives the bell-curve of Fig. 8(d). The result is

Fig. 7. Distribution of thermal sensation in each mode.

 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371
Fig. 8. Proportions of modified thermal sensation vote (mTSV) against air temperature for the 3 modes (figs. a, b, c), and (d) the proportions comfortable (mTSV 3, 4 or 5).
remarkable in two respects. The proportion of people comfortable
at the optimum is very high, only just less that 100%, and the range
over which 90% are comfortable is wide—from around 17 to 30 °C.
The comfort zone is wide because the data are from the homes
where most people can keep comfortable. This is presumably be-
cause people in their own dwellings are free to clothe themselves
according to the room temperature, without the constraints that
are apt to apply at the office.
3.4. Estimation of the comfort temperature
Regression analysis of the thermal sensation and indoor air
temperature was conducted to estimate the comfort temperature
in the three modes (Fig. 9). The following regression equations are
obtained:
FR mode mTSV = 0.120Ti + 1.2
 
n = 25, 117, R2 = 0.47, S.E. = 0.001, p < 0.001
CL mode mTSV = 0.098Ti + 1.5
 
n = 6, 528, R2 = 0.08, S.E. = 0.004, p < 0.001
HT mode mTSV = 0.081Ti + 2.0
 
n = 3, 582, R2 = 0.09, S.E. = 0.004, p < 0.001
Ti is indoor air temperature, n is number of sample, R2 is co-
efficient of determination, S.E. is standard error of the regression
coefficient and p is significance level of regression coefficient.
7
For example, when the comfort temperature is estimated by
substituting ‘4 neutral’ in the equations, it would be 23.3 °C in the
FR mode, 25.5 °C in the CL mode and 24.7 °C in the HT mode. The
comfort temperature is low in CL mode and high in HT mode com-
pared with the mean temperatures (see Table 5). This might be due
to the problem of applying the regression method in the presence
of adaptive behaviour, where it can lead to depressed regression
coefficients with consequent effects on the estimate of the comfort
temperature if the mean thermal sensation differs much from neu-
trality, as has been found in previous research [3,11]. To avoid this
problem, in the next section the comfort temperature is estimated
using the Griffiths method.
3.4.1. Griffiths’ method
In this section the comfort temperature is estimated by the
Griffiths’ method [26–31]. The method supplies a value for the re-
gression coefficient when, as appears to be the case, the value es-
(2)
timated from the data appears to be misleading. The calculation
method is as follows:
Tc = Ti + (4 − mTSV )/a (5)
(3)
Tc is comfort temperature by Griffiths’ method (°C) and ‘a’ is
rate of change of thermal sensation with room temperature, re-
placing the regression coefficient [31].
(4)
In applying the Griffiths’ method, Nicol et al. [29] and
Humphreys et al. [31] investigated the effect of using various val-
ues for ‘a’ (0.25, 0.33 and 0.50). We have done the same for these
data. The mean comfort temperature with each coefficient is sim-
8 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

Fig. 9. Relation between the modified thermal sensation vote (mTSV) and indoor air temperature.

Table 10
Comfort temperature estimated by Griffiths’ method.

Griffiths FR CL HT
coefficient
n Mean (°C) S.D. (°C) n Mean (°C) S.D. (°C) n Mean (°C) S.D. (°C)

0.25 25,177 23.6 3.9 6528 26.7 2.9 3582 20.8 3.6
0.33 25,177 23.6 4.0 6528 26.8 2.4 3582 20.3 3.2
0.50 25,177 23.6 4.3 6528 27.0 2.0 3582 19.9 2.9

n: Number of sample, S.D.: Standard deviation.

Table 11 The comfort temperature found in previous research ranges from

Mean indoor air temperature for ‘4. Neutral’ of mTSV and ‘3. No change’ of TP.
4. Neutral 3. No change
Mode
n Mean (°C) S.D. (°C) n Mean (°C)
FR 14,043 23.9 4.0 14,755 23.7
CL 4653 27.1 1.9 4631 27.1
HT 2226 19.4 2.8 2368 19.3
n: Number of sample, S.D.: Standard deviation.
ilar (Table 10), so it matters little which of these three values is
used (bigger differences would have occurred had the value of the
coefficient been very low). We choose the value 0.50 for further
analysis. These comfort temperatures are also close to the mean
temperature when voted ‘4. Neutral’ or ‘3. No change’ (Table 11).
The mean comfort temperatures by the Griffiths’ method is
23.6 °C in FR mode, 27.0 °C in CL mode and 19.9 °C in HT mode
(Table 10). We have calculated the comfort temperature from each
thermal sensation vote, and thus the individual differences among
the comfort temperatures are large. The correlation between the
comfort temperature and indoor air temperature is quite high
(Fig. 10), showing that fundamentally the people had adapted to
a large extent to the temperatures that they had.
3.4.2. Seasonal difference in comfort temperature
In this section, to clarify the seasonal difference, the comfort
temperature for each season is investigated (Fig. 11). The results
show that the comfort temperature changed according to the sea-
son, and thus it is related to the changes in indoor and outdoor air
temperature. The comfort temperature by the Griffiths’ method is
17.6 °C in winter, 21.6 °C in spring, 27.0 °C in summer and 23.9 °C
in autumn in FR mode. Thus the seasonal difference of the mean
comfort temperature is 9.4 K, which is similar to the value found
in previous research [3]. The comfort temperature of the heating
HT mode also changes significantly from season to season (Fig. 11).
8.4 to 30.2 °C (Table 12), which may suggest that the comfort tem-
perature has regional variation.
S.D. (°C)
3.4.3. Gender difference in comfort temperature
4.0 The gender difference of the comfort temperature for each
1.9
2.8
month in FR mode is investigated as shown in Fig. 12. The results
show that the comfort temperatures of men and women are very
similar (the greatest difference is in November: 0.6 K). Generally,
women wear more clothing than men in Japanese home [47] and
thus women are achieving similar comfort temperature of men by
wearing more clothing. However, it seems that women are some-
what more sensitive than men to temperature change [24].
3.4.4. Comfort temperature in living room and bedroom
Fig. 13 shows the monthly mean comfort temperature in living
room and bedroom in FR mode. When outdoor air temperature is
low (November to March), the comfort temperature of the living
room is much higher than the bedroom. However, the proportions
of window opening are similar in these periods [8]. As we shown
in Fig. 10, the comfort temperature might be related to the indoor
air temperature of the both rooms. People may adapt to the low
bedroom temperature by the clothing adjustments.
3.5. Towards an adaptive model for Japanese dwellings
3.5.1. The adaptive model
The adaptive model requires an index representing the prevail-
ing outdoor temperature. We use Trm , an exponentially weighted
daily-mean outdoor temperature. It is calculated using the follow-
ing equation [48].
Trm = α Trm−1 + (1 − α )Tod−1 (6)
Trm -1 is the running mean outdoor temperature for the previ-
ous day (°C), Tod -1 is the daily mean outdoor temperature for that
previous day (°C). So, if the running mean has been calculated (or
 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371 9

Fig. 10. Relation between the comfort temperature and indoor air temperature.

Fig. 11. Seasonal variation of comfort temperature with 95% confidence intervals (mean ± 2 S.E.).

Table 12
Comparison of comfort temperature with previous research.

Comfort temperature, Tc (°C)

Country Reference Temp. for Tc (°C)
Winter Spring Summer∗ Autumn

Japan (Kanto) This study (FR mode) Ti 17.6 21.6 27.0 23.9
Japan (Kansai) Nakaya et al. [1] Top 27.6
Japan (Kansai) Tobita et al. [2] Tg 9.9
Japan (Gifu) Rijal et al. [3] Ti 15.6 20.7 26.1 23.6
China Wang [32] Top 20.9(M), 21.9(F)
China Wang et al. [33] Ti 23.7
China Han et al. [34] Top 28.6
Singapore de Dear et al. [35] Top 28.5
Malaysia Djamila et al. [36] Ti 30.2
Indonesia Feriadi and Wong [37] Top 29.2
Australia Soebarto and Bennetts [38] Ti 21.7
India Indraganti [39] Tg 29.2
India Singh et al. [40] Ti 20.8∼26.1 22.4∼27.1
India Thapa et al. [41] Top 16.7 20.0
Nepal Rijal et al. [42] Tg 13.4∼24.2 21.1∼30.0
Nepal Rijal [43] Tg 8.4∼12.9
Pakistan Nicol and Roaf [44] Tg 19.8∼25.1 26.7∼29.9
Iran Heidari and Sharples [45] Ti 20.8 28.4
UK Rijal and Stevenson [46] Ti 19.4 19.7 22.9 21.3

Ti : Indoor air temp., Top : Operative temp., Tg : Globe temp.

∗
Including hot & humid climate.
10 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

Table 13
Regression equations in this study and previous studies.

References Buildings Mode Equation∗ n R2 S.E.

This study Dwellings FR Tc =0.480Trm +14.4 25,177 0.70 0.002

CL Tc =0.180Trm +22.1 6528 0.02 0.014
HT Tc =0.193Trm +18.3 3582 0.05 0.014
All Tc =0.432Trm +15.4 35,287 0.68 0.002
Rijal et al. [3] Dwellings FR Tc =0.531Trm +12.5 13,471 0.68 0.003
CL Tc =0.297Trm +18.8 1955 0.06 0.026
HT Tc =0.307Trm +16.5 5240 0.11 0.012
Rijal et al. [11] Offices FR Tc =0.206Trm +20.8 422 0.42 0.012
CL&HT Tc =0.065Trm +23.9 4236 0.10 0.003
CIBSE [22] Offices CL&HT Tc =0.09Trm +22.6
CEN [10] Offices FR Tc =0.33Trm +18.8
ASHRAE [9] Mostly offices NV Tc =0.31Tom +17.8
Humphreys [49] All types FR Tc =0.534Tom +11.9 0.97
∗
: Regression coefficients in this research are all statistically significant (p < 0.001), n: Number of sam-
ple, R2 : Coefficient of determination, S.E.: Standard error of the regression coefficient (°C), FR: Free run-
ning, CL: Cooling, HT: Hearing, NV: Naturally ventilated, Tc : Comfort temp. (°C), Trm : Daily running mean
outdoor air temp. (C), Tom : Monthly mean outdoor air temp. (°C).

Fig. 12. Monthly mean comfort temperature by gender in FR mode with 95% con- Fig. 13. Monthly mean comfort temperature in living room and bedroom in FR
fidence intervals (mean ± 2 S.E.). mode with 95% confidence intervals (mean ± 2 S.E.).

assumed) for one day, then it can be readily calculated for the next
day, and so on. α is a constant between the 0 and 1 which defines
the speed at which the running mean responds to the outdoor air
temperature. In this research α we use the value 0.80, in line with
previous findings (see e.g. Humphreys et al. [31])
An adaptive model relates the indoor comfort temperature to
the outdoor air temperature [9,10]. Fig. 14 shows the relation be-
tween the comfort temperature calculated by the Griffiths’ method
and the running mean outdoor temperature. The regression equa-
tions of this study and previous studies are given in Table 13.

Fig. 14. Relation between the comfort temperature and the running mean outdoor temperature (95% data are within the band) [18].
 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371 11

Fig. 15. Variation of the comfort temperature in some previous and in this research.

The regression coefficient in the FR mode (0.48) is notably European offices the winter temperature is often governed by a
higher than that in the CEN standard. The CEN standard is based control system rather than set by the occupants.
on the field investigation in office buildings, and therefore may not
apply to dwellings, where residents have more freedom to adapt.
3.6. Adaptive mechanisms
The regression coefficient in the FR mode is close to that found for
other Japanese dwellings [3] and to Humphreys [49] model. How-
As we discussed in the previous section, the comfort tempera-
ever, the regression coefficient in the CL mode or HT mode is no-
ture varies greatly with the outdoor temperature, more than had
tably lower, because when heating or cooling are used the indoor
been found in European offices. The reason might be that the res-
temperature is less dependent on the outdoor temperature. The re-
idents are adapting well in their homes using various behavioural,
gression coefficients of the CL and HT modes are higher than in the
physiological and psychological adaptations [15,16]. This section fo-
CIBSE guide [22].
cuses on adaptive mechanisms to regulate the thermal environ-
ment.
3.5.2. Comparison with other adaptive models
Fig. 15 shows the variation of the comfort temperature in the
data underlying the CEN standard [50], Japanese dwellings [3] and 3.6.1. Behavioural adaptations
in this research. The CEN standard only uses the FR mode and It is well-known that behavioural adaptations are the most im-
when the running mean outdoor temperature is above 10 °C. When portant contributor in the adaptive model. Nicol and Humphreys
we compare the regression lines of these three figures, it is very [51] made use of logistic analysis to predict occupant control be-
similar in the hot environment (about 25∼30 °C). In the European haviour in naturally ventilated buildings. The relationship between
research, when outdoor running mean temperature is below 12 °C, the probability of use of building control (p) and the outdoor tem-
the comfort temperature is almost constant (Fig. 15(a)). On the perature is of the form:
other hand, in the Japanese dwellings, the comfort temperature
is also gradually decreasing. In this research, residents were free logit(p )= log{p/(1 − p )}= bTo+ c (7)
to adjust the thermal environment in their home, and thus they
might be adapting more in the low outdoor temperature. In the p = exp(bTo+c )/{1 + exp(bTo+c )} (8)
12 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371

Fig. 16. Relation between the adaptive mechanisms and outdoor air temperature.

where exp (exponential function) is the base of the natural loga-

rithm, b is the regression coefficient for To , and c the constant in
the regression equation.
We have also adopted the logistic regression method here, us-
ing SPSS version 23 for the calculations. The following regression
equations were obtained in between the behavioural adaptations
and the outdoor air temperature [8].

FR mode logit(PW ) = 0.241To − 5.6

 
n = 25, 212, R2∗ = 0.35, S.E. = 0.003, p < 0.001 (9)

FR mode logit(PF ) = 0.282To − 8.3

 
n = 24, 303, R2∗ = 0.23, S.E. = 0.005, p < 0.001 (10)

All mode logit(PC ) = 0.277To − 8.1

 
n = 34, 678, R2∗ = 0.26, S.E. = 0.004, p < 0.001 (11)

Fig. 17. Relation between the comfort temperature and the indoor air temperature
All mode logit(PH ) = −0.233To + 0.8
 2∗
 for the four levels of skin moisture [4].
n = 30, 566, R = 0.20, S.E. = 0.004, p < 0.001 (12)

where, PW is the proportion of window opening, PF is the propor-
tion of fan on, PC is the proportion of cooling on, PH is the propor-
tion of heating on and R2∗ is the Cox and Snell R2 .
We have also analysed the clothing insulation (Icl , clo) and out-
door air temperature, and the following regression equation is ob-
tained.
FR mode Icl = −0.018To + 0.83
 
n = 21, 928, R2 = 0.33, S.E. = 0.0 0 02, p < 0.001
These equations are shown in Fig. 16. The adaptive behaviours
are highly related to the outdoor air temperature. When the out-
door air temperature decreased, the clothing insulation and the
proportion using heating increased. The mean clothing insulation
ranges from about 0.20 to 0.80 clo over the range of outdoor air
temperature, indicating a large seasonal variation. When outdoor
air temperature is below 4 °C, about half of the residents use their
heating. When the outdoor air temperature increases, the propor-
tion of window opening, fan use and cooling use increase. The
proportion of window opening is similar to previous research in
Japanese dwellings [3]. When outdoor air temperature is 23 °C and
29 °C, about half of the residents open the window and use the
cooling. The results showed that the behavioural adaptations con-
tributed importantly to the adaptive model.
3.6.2. Physiological adaptation
It is not easy task to quantify the physiological adaptations in
the field survey. Here, we will discuss the skin moisture (sweat)
feeling in summer, which might be related to the comfort temper-
ature. Fig. 17 shows the relation between the comfort temperature
and the indoor air temperature for the four levels of the skin mois-
ture (see Table 4). The regression equation is given below [4].
Tc = 0.825Ti − 1.317SM + 5.8
(13) 
n = 7868, R2 = 0.68, S.E.1 = 0.006, S.E.2 = 0.019,

p1 and p2 < 0.001 (14)
SM is skin moisture sensation, S.E.1 and S.E.2 are standard er-
ror of regression coefficient for first and second terms, p1 and p2
are significance level of the regression coefficients of the first and
second terms.
Eq. (14) shows skin moisture has a considerable effect on
the comfort temperature, an increase of one category reducing
the comfort temperature by approximately 1.3 K (Fig. 17). Nicol
[52] found that when indoor air temperature is 31–40 °C, increased
air speed reduced the assessed skin moisture. Our results therefore
imply that the evaporation of the skin moisture is important in
raising the comfort temperature in Japan’s hot and humid season
and consequently contributing to the adaptive model.
 H.B. Rijal, M.A. Humphreys and J.F. Nicol / Energy & Buildings 202 (2019) 109371
4. Conclusions
A thermal comfort survey of the residents of the Kanto region
of Japan was conducted for 4 years. The thermal environment in
living rooms and bedrooms were investigated. The following re-
sults were found:
1. The residents proved to be generally satisfied with the ther-
mal environment of their dwellings.
2. The comfort temperature in free running mode was about
27.0 °C in summer and 17.6 °C in winter, and thus the sea-
sonal difference was high at 9.4 K.
3. An adaptive relation between the comfort temperature in-
doors and the outdoor air temperature could be a useful way
to estimate the comfort temperature and for informing con-
trol strategies.
4. People used the various adaptive mechanisms to regulate
the thermal environment which support the adaptive model.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
Acknowledgement
We would like to thank the households who participated in
the survey and the students for data entry. This research was sup-
ported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid
for Scientific Research (C) Number 17K06681.
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