J F Nicol-London

The theory of adaptive thermal comfort suggests that for low energy buildings, which are neither being cooled or heated mechanically, the temperature found comfortable by occupants changes with outdoor temperature. This paper shows how to exploit this finding to develop a technique for predicting the expected indoor comfort temperature in buildings from meteorological records. The resulting (Nicol) graph shows how the desirable temperature in free-running buildings compares with the actual outdoor temperatures, thereby allowing the building designer to predict the desirable passive characteristics of the building.This paper introduces the results on which the Nicol Graph in based and delineates ow the Nicol graph is constructed and its application in the design of buildings.

adaptive thermal comfort, free-running buildings, Nicol graph