Abstract
Two surveys of the thermal environment and thermal sensations were conducted in the indoor and the semi-open spaces of traditional houses, during both summer and winter, in five districts of Nepal: Banke, Bhaktapur, Dhading, Kaski, and Solukhumbu. The surveys were carried out for 40 days, gathering a total of 7116 thermal sensations from 103 subjects. The results show that residents are highly satisfied with the thermal condition of their houses. The residents have higher comfort temperatures in semi-open spaces such as verandas than in indoor spaces. The findings reveal that people in the regions studied adapt well to the natural environment, as a result of which comfort temperatures are different in different climates. They are lowest in the cool climate, medium in the temperate climate, and highest in the subtropical climate. By using the relationship between indoors and outdoors, the adaptive model for dwellings was proposed to predict the comfort temperature.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to give thanks to Prof. Harunori Yoshida, Prof. Noriko Umemiya, Prof. Michael Humphreys, and Prof. Fergus Nicol for their research guidance, to the investigated households for their cooperation, and to our families and friends for their support. This research is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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Rijal, H.B. (2018). Comfort Temperature and Adaptive Model in Traditional Houses of Nepal. In: Kubota, T., Rijal, H., Takaguchi, H. (eds) Sustainable Houses and Living in the Hot-Humid Climates of Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8465-2_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8465-2_17
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