Assessment of occupants’ adaptive capacity: a case study in naturally ventilated traditional residential houses

The thermal comfort of rural residents is a major issue related to people’s livelihood. Due to differences in climatic factors (e.g. local climate) and non-climatic factors (such as building structures, economic and social-cultural levels, living habits, and availability of environmental control) between rural and urban areas, participants have different thermal requirements for a given thermal environment. This difference means that the thermal comfort standards that only consider urban conditions may not be applicable for rural situations. Therefore, a thermal comfort field study was conducted on the thermal comfort of traditional residential houses with natural ventilation located in rural areas of northern, Guizhou, China. This study aims to understand the indoor thermal conditions and perceptions of occupants in rural areas, with a total of 513 subjects participate into questionnaire survey. Most survey respondents accept the thermal environment in which they reside, even if the indoor temperature is not within the recommended thermal comfort range specified by international standards such as ASHRAE 55. Adaptive predict mean vote (aPMV) is established using the least square method. The adaptive coefficient λ representing the adaptive capacity is twice the recommended coefficient of the Chinese standard, GB/T50785-2012. This confirms that rural residents have a stronger adaptability to cold conditions in winter. The findings are benefit for improving thermal comfort and carbon emissions reduction for traditional residential houses in rural areas of northern Guizhou, China.