A field study on thermal comfort in naturally-ventilated buildings located in the equatorial climatic region of Cameroon

The purpose of this research is to create a thermal comfort database in three climatic regions in Cameroon. This will help to define guidelines for constructing more comfortable buildings in Cameroon. There is not enough data regarding comfort in residential environment in the intertropical sub Saharan Africa. Thus experimental and subjective results of hygrometric thermal comfort conducted in 290 buildings located in three cities of the equatorial climatic zone of Cameroon is presented. An adaptive approach according to ASHRAE 55/2004, ISO 7730 and 10551 was adopted. A specific questionnaire has been elaborated for the investigation. 710 questionnaires in the dry season and 410 in the rainy season were distributed to inhabitants and filled while different experimental values of indoor parameters were measured. The comfortable temperature ranges for the three cities was found between 22 °C and 29 °C. The 61.24% of voters found acceptable their thermal habitat, the 13.72% considered it neutral.