Field Study on Indoor Thermal Environments of Monastic Houses and Thermal Comfort of Monks.

Monastic houses are an essential part of the Tibetan monastic system in China. In this study, the monastic houses of Labrang in the Tibetan region of Gannan were used as the research objects. Physical parameters such as indoor temperature, humidity, and radiation temperature of the monastic houses were measured. The measured results were compared with the standard values, while the air temperature was linearly fitted using TSV, PMV, and aPMV. The results show that the temperature inside and outside the monastic houses fluctuates considerably; the theoretical thermal neutral temperature of the tested monks in winter is 22.46 °C, which is higher than the measured thermal neutral temperature in winter of 16.43 °C. When analyzing the results, it was found that the local climate, dress code, and the monks' specific habits all impact the perception of thermal comfort, which creates a discrepancy between the accurate results and the standard values. The above findings provide a more comprehensive reference for the thermal comfort requirements of the monks in cold areas, which can be used as a guide for the improvement and evaluation of the monastic houses in cold areas.

Adaptive-rational thermal comfort model: Adaptive predicted mean vote with variable adaptive coefficient.

Thermal adaptations, as feedbacks of occupants to physical stimuli, extend thermal comfort zone thereby reducing building energy consumption effectively. The rational approach models thermal comfort from the perspective of the body's heat balance, but is limited in explaining the thermal adaptations. The adaptive approach of modeling thermal comfort can fully account for the thermal adaptations, but ignores the body's heat balance. To improve thermal comfort prediction, this study proposes an adaptive-rational thermal comfort model, that is, an adaptive predicted mean vote with a variable adaptive coefficient (termed as arPMV). By linearly linking the negative feedback effects of the thermal adaptations to the ambient temperature according to the adaptive approach, the variable adaptive coefficient is linearly related to the reciprocal of the ambient temperature with two constants. The variable adaptive coefficient is determined by explicitly quantifying the two constants as the functions of the predicted mean vote, thermal sensation vote, and ambient temperature. The proposed arPMV is validated for naturally ventilated, air-conditioned, and mixed-mode buildings, with the mean absolute error and the robustness of the thermal sensation prediction reduced by 24.8%-83.5% and improved by 49.7%-83.4%, respectively.