Adaptive comfort applications in Australia and impacts on building energy consumption

The buildings sector offers the greatest potential for cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions out of all the sectors examined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However that potential was based purely on technical measures applied to existing buildings and new construction. It is becoming increasingly clear that non-technical options involving building occupant comfort, culture and behaviour will also need to be implemented in order to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of CO2 within a useful timeframe. The adaptive comfort model provides a theoretically coherent option that opens up many cost-effective, low energy design alternatives. Numerous example applications are appearing all over the world. This paper describes Australian applications in mixed-mode buildings. Estimates of building energy conservation are 40% and 45% for the Sydney and Melbourne case-studies respectively, compared to the Australian conventional HVAC benchmark. A pattern is emerging Post Occupancy Evaluations of Australia's recent 'green' building stock; low-energy buildings designed around adaptive comfort principles are often evaluated as warmer in summer and cooler in winter, sometimes uncomfortably so. The POE literature indicates that, despite some minor discomforts, occupants are still favourably disposed towards Australia's new green buildings, auguring well for mainstream acceptance of adaptive comfort strategies.