Outdoor thermal perception and comfort conditions in the Koppen-Geiger climate category BSk. One-year field survey and measurement campaign in Konya, Turkey

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of the thermo-hygrometric conditions in the city of Konya (Turkey). A one-year transversal field surveywas carried out in the Selcuk University campus and 2295 valid questionnaireswere collected. In each questionnaire, randomly selected interviewees provided personal information and judged their perception and thermal preference according to the ASHRAE 7-point and McIntyre scales, respectively. For each interviewee, a value of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) was calculated based on the values of operational variables obtained from the questionnaires and the environmental variablesmeasured during the survey. This allowed to calculate the seasonal preferred and neutral PETs and the annual PET comfort range. Also, the scale of the PET thermal perception was determined for the Konya population and, more generally, for the inhabitants of the BSk Koppen-Geiger climate zone. Statistical analyzes carried out in terms of Variance Inflationary Factor, multicollinearity assessment and Best Subsets Analysis led to the identification of the Turkish Outdoor Comfort Index, an empirical index able to predict the average value of the thermal perception of a large group of individuals living in the aforementioned climate zone. Moreover, the equations of the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) were obtained for each season. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.