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Today, identifying energy poverty is one of the scientific community's challenges. In this sense, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) assumes getting to know which areas are the most vulnerable. This study considers the development of a new territory energy poverty evaluation indicator, called Poverty Adaptive Degree Hourly Index (PADHI). The novelty of this indicator is that it combines the number of inhabitants in poverty with the hourly heating and cooling degrees of each climate, determined using adaptive thermal comfort limits based on ASHRAE 55-2017. The area studied focuses on Chile and its 346 municipalities. The application of the adaptive comfort model can exceed 90% in the north of the country and be below 20% in the most meridional areas. The results also outlined that the municipalities defined as PADHI's 10th decile are those which have a higher risk of energy poverty in their population, a higher percentage of income poverty and climatic severity. A cluster analysis was also run for this decile, identifying two risk groups with the aim of identifying the critical areas. This methodology applied to Chile, but international in nature, allows identifying priority areas on which the measures needed to reduce energy poverty can be focused. © 2020 International Energy Initiative

Adaptive comfort plays an important role in defining comfort standards when considering comfort in buildings in free-running mode, including adaptation to external temperatures, opening windows and changing clothing. In this regard, two international standards provide the fundamental basis to model the necessary equations: EN 16798 (formerly 15251) and ASHRAE 55–2017. This research intends on assessing the feasibility of applying these standards to the Chilean context, where a legal framework has begun to be implemented to regulate the occupant's comfort in social housing. Extensive monitoring of inhabitants in existing units under free-running mode has been undertaken in several social housing projects in the city of Concepcion (Chile) and the collected data has been contrasted against the international standards. Results show that users in these houses show more tolerance to cold temperatures, thus, despite being allocated below the standards' lower limits, they are considered to be in thermal comfort. As a result, the outcomes of this research can shed light on the feasibility of applying international standards to social housing and low-income families in Chile. The study presents a proposal for a novel adaptive comfort model for Chile. The new model proposes adapting the thermal comfort threshold's lower limit in order to develop a national standard that better reflects the inhabitants' needs and socio-economic culture. The study demonstrates how the proposed model best fits the thermal comfort conditions in social housing in Chile.

This paper presents the results of a field study on thermal comfort in school buildings in Chile, the aim of which was to determine the comfort temperature of primary school children. Results are given for twelve schools that are located in Santiago, a city with relatively low temperatures in winter and high temperatures in summer, and that are typically free-running, as they have neither a heating nor a cooling system. The methodology included measurements of thermal parameters complemented with questionnaires based on the adaptive comfort model and modified to be understood by 9–10 year-old students. The fieldwork was organised into two phases: winter (July–August) and spring (November–December), and in each phase students answered the questionnaire up to three times per day over a period of three to four days. The results show that indoor temperatures in the classrooms are extremely low during occupancy hours in winter and quite high in spring, but the students' thermal sensation votes show that they tend to adapt quite dramatically to this wide variation. Comfort temperature is significantly lower than that calculated from the adaptive comfort model as established for adults, with temperatures as low as 14.7 °C - 15.6 °C in winter and 22.5 °C – 23.1 °C in spring. Additionally, students from highly vulnerable schools voted for a lower comfort temperature in winter than those from less vulnerable realities, thereby implying that there is a strong relation between comfort temperature and the socio-economic background of school children in this context.

Currently, there are few studies aimed at evaluating the indoor thermal comfort of specific contexts such as that of Chile, where national standards are based on international references and are not mandatory. For this research, a field study was conducted in 19 buildings in Chile: 10 in Concepcion and 9 in Santiago. Thermal comfort surveys and simultaneous measurements were carried out to calculate users' comfort temperatures according to their thermal sensation and thermal preference. The comfort temperatures obtained are compared with the comfort ranges defined by national standards and differentiated by the modes of operation of the case studies: Heating Only (HT); Mixed Mode (MM); and Heating, Ventilated and Air Conditioned (HVAC). The results show that in general, occupants adapt themselves to the indoor operative temperatures, especially with regard to their thermal preference. The neutral temperatures range from 19.5 °C to 24.6 °C and the preferred temperatures range from 19.9 °C to 24.6 °C amongst all cases studied. With regard to the national thermal comfort standards, the Sustainable Building Certification system (CES), which is based on ASHRAE 55, and the Terms of Reference on Environmental Comfort and Energy Efficiency (TDRe), their adaptive method is applicable in HT and MM buildings when occupants have adaptive opportunities. The findings of the summer fieldwork in HVAC buildings do not match the steady-state method of ASHRAE 55 (0.5 Clo) since the neutral and preferred temperatures, as well as the operative temperatures, are below the range stipulated, although they do match the TDRe comfort range.