What influences thermal comfort¶
Thermal comfort depends on six factors - four environmental and two personal - plus acclimatisation, expectation and a person's thermal history. Air temperature alone predicts comfort badly.
Thermal comfort is influenced by many factors.
Factors that relate to the user¶
- clothing level
- activity level
- acclimatisation
- time spent outdoors
- expectation of the experience
- a person's 'thermal history' with air conditioning - either adaptive comfort use, or habituation
Factors that relate to the surrounding environment¶
- air temperature
- radiant temperature of surfaces
- solar radiation
- air speed
- humidity
Each of these is described in more detail in measuring thermal comfort and thermal comfort models.
Why this makes a universal standard difficult¶
It is extremely difficult to apply both a practical and economically viable universal building standard across different socio-economic contexts, cultures and regions with different regional and micro-climates. Different combinations of thermal comfort factors also interact with climate change, social, economic and cultural factors in complex ways.
Whether a particular building design or feature will deliver adequate thermal comfort in a specific localised context can also be hard to reliably assess at concept, or even detailed design, stage.
Designers are often flying blind¶
Designers and builders are often 'flying blind' because of a lack of measured building performance data - there is simply too little or no feedback for designers as to how their buildings actually perform in the real world.
Adopting 'tried and trusted' ways of building can sometimes help. However, where evidence of effective performance of existing traditional buildings and features is hard to come by, or inconclusive, traditional approaches can also risk poor performance.
This risk is increasing. Fossil fuel pollution and environmental degradation of ecosystems have led to increasing regional and localised changes in climatic conditions. Historic or modern building methods and designs that are adequately comfortable now may not be comfortable - or even safe - in the coming years.
Borrowing from historical experience may not always help in the context of a rapidly changing climate. ARC's approach must be based on evidence-based, monitored and proven solutions wherever possible. See climate and weather.
Source: ARC Technical Criteria - ARC Protocols for Cool Buildings - Thermal Comfort
Overview · confidence high · Imported 2026-08-29, not yet reviewed · next review 2026-11-29
Tags: comfort, fundamentals, humidity, overview
Citation key: thermal-comfort-factors