A review of human thermal comfort in the built environment

• We conducted a review of human thermal comfort in the built environment.
• Our focus was to review papers published in the last 10 years.
• We examined standards, productivity and human physiological models.
• We also reviewed indoor experiments (laboratory and in the field) and outdoor ones.
• Around 500 articles were included in this review paper.

The aim of this paper is to review the literature on human thermal comfort in the built environment. First an overview about the subject area is presented. This is followed by a review of papers published in the last 10 years that examine the various sub-areas of research related to human thermal comfort. Some remarkable works about both the Fanger's and adaptive thermal comfort models are also discussed. This review does not contain simulation works and/or experimental studies without subjective results of people. As a result of the literature review, 466 articles were classified and grouped to form the body of this article. The article examines standards, indoor experiments in controlled environments (climate chamber) and semi-controlled environments, indoor field studies in educational, office, residential and other building types, productivity, human physiological models, outdoor and semi-outdoor field studies. Several research topics are also addressed involving naturally ventilated, air-conditioned and mixed-mode buildings, personalized conditioning systems and the influence of personal (age, weight, gender, thermal history) and environmental (controls, layout, air movement, humidity, among others) variables on thermal comfort.