I want it that way: Thermal desirability in shared spaces

Abstract

Building management systems in commercial spaces commonly operate on predefined temperature setpoints and control schedules. These systems typically do not consider the individual occupant's thermal preferences, which often leads to high thermal dissatisfaction rates, especially in shared spaces. Recent studies target human-in-the-loop personalized control, where each occupant's thermal preferences are taken into account. These control systems require occupants to frequently submit votes regarding their thermal comfort. Such votes are usually acquired using surveys with standardized scales. However, occupants often find these too cumbersome or literally do not understand the questions. This paper presents an intuitive thermal desirability scale to assess occupants' thermal comfort in scenarios with frequently queried feedback or control applications. The scale was tested in a survey with 100 participants against three common standardized thermal comfort scales. Results show that the thermal desirability scale provides a finer-grained understanding of control options for occupants than using a single standardized scale.