Evaluation of thermal comfort in two neighboring climatic zones in Eastern India—an adaptive approach.

• Conducted ASHRAE class II Protocol based thermal comfort field survey studies in 10 different buildings in 5 neighboring locations experiencing two different climatic region, i.e. Hot and humid climate and Cold climate. • Clothing Insulation was significantly higher in cold climatic region than in hot and humid region. • Comfort temperature in cold climatic region was significantly lower than that in hot and humid region. • Variation of proportion of use of fans is provided by a logistic regression equation. • Variation of proportion of wearing of warm clothing is provided by a logistic regression equation. Thermal comfort standards determine the sustainability and comfort in buildings. In order to determine the comfort conditions in the real environment and to include the adaptability of the subjects, numerous field survey-based comfort studies were conducted across the globe. Apart from the four environmental factors and two personal factors that affect thermal comfort, several interpersonal and non-thermal factors affect adaptation. However, previous studies reported from different climatic conditions also had their subjects as different natives, thus involving subjects with different interpersonal factors altogether. In this paper, we present the results of a cross-sectional thermal comfort study conducted with 436 subjects having close interpersonal factors, i.e. similar group of people in close geography but separated by two different climates, i.e. hot and humid type and cold type. Clothing insulation was significantly higher in cold climatic region than in the hot and humid region, while comfort temperature was significantly lower in the cold climate than in the hot and humid region. Compared to the published reports, the comfort temperatures varied widely: 18.4 °C to 36.1 °C in the hot and humid region and 11.1 °C to 30.1 °C in the cold climate region. We present a logistic regression model to predict the probability of fans running in the hot and humid region given the temperature variation. Also, presented is the probability of wearing warm clothing with plummeting temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]