Outdoor thermal sensation and logistic regression analysis of comfort range of meteorological parameters in Hong Kong

Abstract

Warm and hot days account for most of the time in Hong Kong. Outdoor thermal comfort studies in Hong Kong should give its first consideration to warm and hot days. This study presents investigations about thermal comfort through 1600 human subject responses from the onsite survey with concurrent meteorological parameter measurements. Probit analysis was used for searching the thermal neutral range of Hong Kong residents in a year span. Logistic regression was used for locating the meteorological parameter ranges for thermal neutral and comfort conditions. It is shown that people had difficulties defining their actual thermal feelings near the thermal neutral status when being asked to use the nine-point thermal sensation scale. Obvious thermal adaptation effect for thermal neutral conditions were observed among Hong Kong residents over the seasons in a year. The transitional seasons had a wider thermal neutral range than that of winter and summer. Summer had the narrowest thermal neutral range. Wind and solar radiation had an interaction effect with air temperature in determining thermal sensation and thermal comfort. Wind can effectively offset the negative effect of solar radiation in summer when the air temperature was lower than 31 °C. The thermal comfort condition allowed a higher limit of solar radiation than the thermal neutral condition when the air temperature was lower than 31 °C. The investigations in this study provide some unique insights into the way to assess urban thermal comfort in the building design stage.