Multicriteria Characterization of Adaptive Comfort Variables in Office Buildings

Analytic models and static approaches as the case of Fanger, Deval, Sherman, Gagge, and Stolwijkmodels cannot completely predict indoor thermal comfort. Building designers could take advantage of adaptive approach of thermal comfort which can account for the complex interaction betweenoccupants and their environment that could affect their comfort.We had carried a field study in two office buildings on March 2005. It has included physicalmeasurements and questionnaires on thermal perception and appreciation. We followed multicritariaand structural approaches for analyzing questionnaires results and measurements. This methodenables us to identify new quantitative and qualitative variables of adaptive comfort. The results of the study are new link of essential variables, with the way that they characterize thermal comfort.