ABSTRACT
With buildings accounting for up to 40 per cent of energy end-use in developed economies, regulatory and economic pressures are mounting to reduce the sector's greenhouse gas emissions (Andaloro et al., 2010). One of the key lessons from the oil crisis of the 1970s is that the ultimate success or failure of a building project – in terms of its long-term viability, energy use and occupant satisfaction – depends heavily upon the quality of the indoor environment delivered to the building occupants. Since HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) is the single largest energy end-use in the built environment, it is inevitable that we should look critically at our dependence on mechanically cooled indoor climates. The past twenty years have witnessed a profound change in the thermal comfort field and the dialectic between conventional, or ‘static’, and the adaptive comfort theories became a landmark in itself. This discussion became more prominent by the end of the twentieth century with the realisation of the (unsustainable) energy carbon required to air condition indoor environments.
